Lunchtime Pal

Today while Armando and I were pulled over beside a wooded area to eat lunch while on break from work, we were joined by the most adorable lunchtime pal. I had to make sure it was not one of my cats because it had such a big resemblance to my cat named Mocha. (The only thing was, this cat had a tail and Mocha has a tiny, tiny bobtail)

After some envious glances from our lunchtime pal, we gave in and gave her the rest of our lunches. Take a look at the cutie below, Wouldn't you have handed over your lunch too?

Four Day Holiday Weekend!

I was off work Thursday and Friday and I had such a nice and relaxing four day holiday. One thing I felt bad about this Thanksgiving was not being able to help Mom with the Thanksgiving dinner as much as I always do. I had to work Wednesday until 5:30 and I came home and helped her after work but she had cooked so many desserts and had most everything done. I woke up early Thanksgiving to help her. I think I gained some weight this Thanksgiving. I love pumpkin pie and ham and turkey. It sure was delicious!

This evening Armando and I went to look at a few stores. I got an electronic game for my Aunt who will be having another kidney transplant in the near future. I work all week and won't be able to go visit her except on weekends since she is having the transplant at a city not so close to home. I hate that she is going to be staying for four weeks by herself and everybody is going to be working. I am just on my first 90 days at work, so I cannot take off at all, until next year sometimes. I am trying to put together some fun things to keep her occupied while she is in the hospital. Does anybody have any good ideas?

Armando bought me a 80 GB hard drive and installed it. I love it! I feel like I have a new computer. My other hard drive was getting pretty full. I cleaned it up Friday and organized things into folders and placed them on the new hard drive. Then Armando formatted the old hard drive for me. My computer is running a lot smoother.

Before I got this new job, I had decided I would make a blog using html. Each time I posted in the last blog, I had to use HTML to do my entries. I liked being able to use creativity and put things together but I realized later that I did not really have as much time to devote to doing everything HTML. So I just changed back to a template. I am using the Windows Live Writer to publish my entries and it is easier.

Well, I have rambled enough. I really hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend as much as I did!

Learning Flexibility

If you were to look back upon your life and then trace the different pathways that your life has taken through different eras, it is an interesting journey. Isn't it? I was actually thinking about that subject this evening.

I am a planner and usually try to pre-plan for things in life by working toward goals, etc. But, there have been many things that happened in my life that I never could have pre-planned for or even imagined for that matter. Those things ended up playing big parts in my life. Some actually ended up being great blessings in my life!

I guess that is why it is always good to not be a "slave" to your plan but a "master" and remain flexible enough to chart a different course when necessary. It has taken me a while to realize that. I am not always the easiest person to get to change directions when I have my mind set on something. Sometimes it is easy to be blinded when you are focusing on a plan or goal and you tend to lose sight of the fact that sometimes your pre-set destination may not always be the best one for you in the long run! I guess it is called experience and learning flexibility.

Friday Night

November 18, 2006

After getting off work, Armando and I went to eat sushi at Miyako Japanese Restaurant. The sushi was delicious but the restaurant was so busy that it took us quite a while to get sushi. We ate soup while waiting. It was a nice treat. I have been so tired after work that we haven’t went anywhere the past few weeks but I felt good Friday evening.

Afterwards, we went to a Tattoo place and got prices on a new tattoo that Armando would like to get. He wants to find his own design first and then get it done. Right next door to the tattoo store was a "Naughty store" and I couldn't help laughing at some of the shoes on display in the window and outfits. They had some sparkly red Dorothy in the wizard of Oz shoes with huge heels! Hehehe They were hilarious. I wish I had thought to snap a picture of them to show.

Later, we bought a few Christmas gifts. We needed to get them soon to send a package off to Chile before the deadline. Right now, I still have no idea when the Christmas deadline is for mailing packages overseas but hopefully it will be ok. Then, we looked at Best Buy and went to Barnes and Nobles bookstore. I fell asleep on the way home and woke up a few minutes before we turned into the driveway!

At a few stores we looked at the Sansa mp3 player that Armando has been telling me about. I like it a lot. It is really nice because you can watch windows media player videos on it and listen to mp3's. I have wanted something to listen to music at my desk at work when the phone calls slow down. They don't usually slow down that much but now and then they do and it makes me feel happy to listen to some good music lightly during those times I am doing paperwork and orders, etc. Armando has been a sweetheart and allowing me to take his palm to work and listen to music. My palm doesn't have a speaker or way to listen to music.

I have been thinking about that little Sansa too much since we saw it. It sure is cool. Well, we will see...

Sorry I have not posted in so long. I've been at the new job three weeks and everybody tells me it will take me six months to feel comfortable. I am starting to believe them! The new job is stressful and there are many things to learn. I use a lot of programs every day and this is a whole new field for me. The last few weeks have been rough for me and I have been tired and just have not felt like doing much else besides resting when I get home. I worked overtime several days also. I think this job is always going to be stressful because you have many angry customers calling and yelling at you, etc and then you have a lot of multi-tasking to do and you absolutely have to be organized. I have had to learn to not take those customers personally. I am normally a sensitive person so that has been a learning experience.

I have heard a lot of stories about this new job from my co-workers. I've heard that they have a high turnover rate and many people take anti-depressants etc. I am trying to keep positive and motivate myself and find healthy ways to deal with the stress. I don't want to work at a job that makes me be on anti-depressants. If it gets to that point, I will be looking for a new job.

Sleeping Kitten

October 15, 2005

One of the kittens asleep today.

Our Story Part 2

October 14, 2006

One fun part of our long distance relationship was sending letters and packages back and forth. He would send me Chilean (cafe) coffee, candy, and all kinds of fun things. One package he sent me a bottle of Chilean wine and a book by my favorite author and a natural quartz crystal from the mountains in Chile. Nobody had ever sent me a bottle of wine before or cared enough to even remember what my favorite author was... Another very special gift was an alpaca poncho to keep me warm in the winter. I always get cold in the winter. One year for Christmas he surprised me and sent me a digital camera! The dial had broke on my digital camera.

His first visit:

I arrived before dark in the early morning hours at Atlanta International Airport in Georgia to pick A up on his first trip to Alabama. I did a bit of worrying and some frantic rounds around the airport before I finally saw him. He explained later what had happened. He was actually put in the security orange room because when they asked him his return flight date he honestly could not remember the actual date. Welcome to the USA via the orange security room, right?

He had mistakenly got his Mom's tickets to Argentina instead of his own return flight tickets. Imagine A's surprise when he reaches in his bag to show them his tickets and they are his Mom's tickets instead. (Mierda!) He was honest with them and after some verification they let him through.

We stayed busy going places the whole time he was here. We had a lot of fun and sadly, the time flew by. We took a trip to Biloxi, Mississippi (before the hurricane did so much damage there.) We gambled and got free drinks, had lazy sleep in mornings and enjoyed the view of the sandy beaches and water. He was so caring and loving and he made me laugh a lot. I was on cloud nine!

My sister gave me an early birthday gift of a hotel room for Armando and I in Birmingham. That was so sweet of her and her husband. We got a bottle of Chilean wine and sushi and just relaxed. Later we went to the Science Museum with my sister and niece and nephew. We also went to the Birmingham zoo. We both love animals so it was fun.

On the day A had to return to Chile, I tried hard to be strong and not show sadness but I found myself tearing up on the drive to the airport. I was going to miss him a lot. On the drive back to Alabama, I cried and got upset and then resolved to try and be strong and focus on the day he was to return to live here.

Our plan was for him to return to Chile and finish his classes so he could get his degree and then he would move here and I needed to find a job that had health insurance. We knew it would take some time for us to go through the immigration process and marry but the most important thing was the love that we have for each other. We can work through the rest.

Our Story Part 1

October 12, 2006

If you had told me five years ago that I would be in a relationship with a man like A, I would not have believed it to be true.

The oddest thing about our story is the way we met. I had put a message on a message board asking for help to learn Spanish and in return, I would help teach somebody English. He responded.

Actually, I needed more help with my Spanish than he did with his English. He had already lived in Boston as a boy with a family as an exchange student. He did not know much English at that time and he had to learn by being thrown into the environment. I only helped him a little with some pronunciation and he has had to teach me everything, the alphabet, pronunciation, verbs. He is still teaching me Spanish.

Over time we started talking, sending a lot of emails, having long chat sessions, telephone conversations, and then later web camera and chat sessions. We learned a lot about each other. I liked him more and more. There was something about the way he viewed the world. He opened me up to new ideas and made me realize that the distance between us didn't matter, as long as we loved each other and stayed devoted and kept contact as much as we could.

At that time, he lived in Chile and I lived here in Alabama. We both enjoyed photography so we shared our days through pictures. I showed him where I lived, special people in my life, with pictures and with little videos. He did the same for me. I saw the beauty of Chile in his pictures and I felt very close to him when I looked at his pictures.

One of my favorite things for him to do was to set up his web camera and notebook and take it out to the back terrace and show me the parrots in the trees, the flowers, and his dogs. Of course, I loved seeing him too, any chance I got! I liked his smile and to hear his laughter.

No matter how much I heard people talk around me that he was in another country, how could we love each other? I just ignored them because I knew in my heart, that I couldn't have loved him more, even if he had been right here in Alabama. That love grew and when we did meet in person, we hit it off perfectly, just as we always had by telephone, by internet chats and webcam sessions.

I have to admit, the first time I met him, I was so nervous! I had all of these concerns which proved to be just a bad case of the nerves. I remember telling my sister on the telephone, What if he does not like me as much as he thinks he does after he gets here? All I can say is I was excited but also, thinking of a million things that might go wrong. Well, I WAS WRONG! Thank goodness!

The day I met A for the first time was also the same day my nephew was born. What a happy day it was, meeting the man I love for the first time and seeing my newborn nephew!

To be continued...

New Blog Format

I am in the process of re-organizing my blog.

The blog will stay at the same address, I am just changing the blog into a different format to make things easier once I get it set up!

I am re-posting some old entries into the new format.