Life is good!!!

I had yet another great weekend and yes, I still have a cold.

I cleaned my kitchen cabinets saturday morning. Went to a play to see MR's nephew. The plays are something I really enjoy. I am grateful that MR invites me to enjoy these great  plays. We had dinner at Filipis in Escondido and it was yumminess.  MR, LB , KR, AW and I ate there. Then AH joined us at the play. These ladies are amazing! I am truly blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.

Today was our ward potluck and it was so much fun. I was super sleepy but Sister G made our meal so much fun. Lets just say JS dared AW to kiss someone for $20 and she did which only led to more kissing dares, it was hilarious but fun.

I also received a voice mail from PL who called to see what was up. I emailed her since I knew she was at church and keep thinking we are due for a call. She hadn't read my e-mail so it made me happy to know we were both thinking of each other.

NE is closer to graduating and I am excited to see where she decides to attend college.

Yes, life is good! !!!

Audits, Allergies, Colds and Ibuprofen PM

I have been a bit worried the past three weeks about our ISO14001 Surveillance audit. It seems as though I have one audit after another and one project after another.

On March 3 I left a dinner party relatively early because I felt cold and just not good. I couldn't figure out if I was just feeling blue or was I fighting something. Sure enough I was fighting a cold. I continue to fight such cold.

So last night as I left work I remembered when we had our audit 6 months ago I was 10 minutes late for the start time due to allergies and a sinus headache. So I vowed I would be on time if not early and thought I better take some Tylenol PM to fall asleep and wake up on time.

I arrived at CVS and there was no Tylenol PM so I bought Ibuprofen PM. I got home by 8 and took it and found myself in bed by 8:45 pm and not sure when I fell asleep but it was way before 10.

I had planned to wake up at 4:45 but opted to do 5:30. However, I have a great co-worker who called me at 5:15 to make sure I was awake, which I was.

Well my throat was hurting a little in the morning but I went through my audit with flying colors. We are the last site he audits.

Ironically this is the first afternoon I have felt like I have more energy than I have the past two weeks. Remember a week ago I called in sick as I wanted to just sleep as I had a slight fever and aches and could hardly talk.

I am beginning to wonder does my stress trigger me to wear my immune system down and get sick before an audit? I would say yes. So my lesson learned from this audit (as I start a coughing fit) relax your team knows the stuff you put up on boards and talk about at the KPI meetings.

I can't believe I did this moment

Let me tell you about my morning today.

I woke up around 5 am and thought wow I feel wide awake and it is 5 am I love DST. I also realized I had a runny nose from my cold and thought blow your nose and go back to sleep and rest.

So when my alarm went off at 6:30 and I just kind of lounged for a second I thought alright I feel good and I am going to be on time. When all of a sudden I heard someone on the radio say it was 7:20 I was like what? How could this happen?

Easily, although I somehow managed to move all my clocks forward an hour on Sunday morning. I didn't think about my alarm clock. Why? Well my alarm clock is my backup alarm. However, last night I was wide awake at 11:00 pm texting, commenting on FB statuses and checking email on my primary alarm my personal cell. So I decided it turn it off like your work cell and that is where things went wrong.

Yes, the girl at work that send the following e-mail out is the one who showed up 20 minutes late to work this morning.

Tuesday -

So here it is another day...Tuesday.

I was not a happy camper when I got home last night and there was a car parked in my spot.
Now if you have been to my place you know why. This would mean I would have to find a parking spot quite a distance away.

Luckily my one neighbor that I think has lost his mind - said I should have the car towed. I responded  " I really don't want to take such drastic measures I will go in for a little bit and come back". I had parked right behind my spot but still hung over onto my other two neighbors who I was 100% sure were in for the night.

He looked at me and said "It's good you are kind and thoughtful and don't want to create drama you can park in my spot my car is gone for the night. Then he continued to rattle off all the parking spot numbers that are not being used.

I was like great time to have a cold and not be able to retain this information. So off I went to my place put some items away and changed into my pajamas and wondered what numbers did he say I could park in? I wrote a note asking the individual to not park there again or i would have them towed the next time. ( I took a picture of the car license plate with the note so that I woudl have proof in the future). It seemed like a smart thing to do and I really felt that because of how I was being inconvenienced I would have them towed the next time this happens. 


So, as I walked back with note in hand back to my parking spot i thought well you are genious putting your pajamas on when you know you may have to park far away and walk a ways back to your place since you can't remember what spots are open or which one is that man's parking spot he offered you.   Luckily the man was out by the pool smoking and I asked him if I could park in his spot. He said yes and again rattled all these other spot numbers. I told him that I really appreciated his kindness. His response "no problem, you need to get some rest you work long hours and you sound sick so go park and go to bed". Now I appreciated his generosity but I was also a little bit creeped out that a neighbor that I have never interacted with and I think has lost his mind knows what kind of hours I keep at work and that he could tell I was sick.
So my question to you is - is it worth it to have it towed if they park there again?

Which poses a couple of questions:

If that car is parked there again should i have it towed? My initial response is deal with it document and eventually if it becomes a nuisance yes but really is it worth it even then?

The other question is should I be freaked out that someone in my neighborhood knows about my comings and goings ?

Monday Blues

I didn't work a whole lot as planned last week due to feeling under the weather and then I called in sick for Friday. I hoped to kick my cold in the butt and be at my desk on Saturday with peace and quiet around me so I could get everything done.


Unfortunately my cold had other plans for me and I laid at home all day Saturday and Sunday. Last night I had a rough time falling asleep and it happened sometime before 2 am even though I went to bed at 10.

I woke up at 7 and managed to get showered and dressed for work and arrived a little late but felt worn out from getting ready and driving to work.

My 10 am meeting was a no show as usual but it really got to me. Why? Well I have a lot of action items that deal with this individual and aside from saying a very unfriendly hello this individual is just sending me e-mails asking for information which angered me more. Yes angered. So as I sat and wrote down an e-mail asking for a status update on our open items I felt my eyes tearing up. I know, no crybabies allowed and it is a lame reaction but cut me some slack I am sick and I am tired and I have my French executives coming tomorrow and an audit to end the week.

I didn't want to sound mean or aggressive in the e-mail and a couple of people reviewed it and said I was too nice and it sounded as though the other person was not doing their job. My boss caught me in the hallway and asked me if I was ok and what did I need from him today to help me today. I just looked at him and it must have been with discouragement and he asked me if I was ok. I told him I was and that what I really needed was for this other individual to honor his meetings and deadlines and for him to support me after I sent his other direct report an e-mail.

My boss asked me to not send the e-mail and that we could all meet to talk about what we needed to get done. I looked at him and said ok I wont send the e-mail but seriously you don't have time to sit with us to see what we need to get done.

So the e-mail was not sent and the person just agreed to meet with me at 3 or 3:30 today - wish me luck. I keep saying to myself Don't cry shopgirl, except I say HR girl.

Some days set your world on fire

and some days they sink like stones. That's when your heart will cry out, until your body is numb.

Yes, that is how I am feeling lately. I feel like some days my world is on fire and nothing can go wrong even when I feel stones pulling me down. Yet I can't manage to let my heart cry out. I tried and even seeing The Impossible was not enough.

So today I went on a little break and drove to Elfin Forest while playing On the Road very loud and enjoyed the following lyrics:

So when the sun is coming up and you go..and there's still so many things you don't know
Don't you look back, got no doubt that I will see you on the road
and when the world's laying you low
why don't you let me carry your load
when things get bad
you know you'll have the friends all along the road

Which helped me think of the following things that are sinking me down and what I can do to feel better.

I am not going to Tempe to see the Angels play in spring training and that could be part of my blah feeling.  I usually do this trek for my birthday and see Perri but this year there are time constrains due to work obligations. -  I am breaking down and getting cable so I can watch some Angels games this season (and Deadliest Catch) - please tell me this will cure my blues over not seeing Angels game live.

I keep thinking a lot about my mom and missing her. I think the reason for that is because my cousin Vero and Elisa are posting about their dad's health situation. I see pictures of him and I imagine what my mom would look like at this time if she were alive and it saddens me a little to know I don't have a mom and that my cousins are now dealing with aging parents. I hope I can snap out of this soon or at least by May. To make me feel better I am thinking I am going to frame a couple of my mom's pictures and hang them up at my place.

I am missing my cousins in Mexico. It has been a few years since I saw some of them and we have gone through longer periods of time of not seeing each other. Yet I miss them and think of how when we were younger we lived so close together, visited often and then it stopped. We are all now adults spread throughout Mexico and CA and virtually strangers. However FB has kept us connected in a small way. Not sure if this will be possible but I am going to plan a trip to Mexico maybe for December or early 2014 and I would like to see my family in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico City, Queretaro and Leon and maybe Cabo.

Then there is the fact that my youngest niece is graduating in May. I love my nieces and nephew so much but with N graduating it signifies the end of an era. The era where the kids are kids and I am an adult. We are all now adults and I wonder wait how did I get so old and what do I do now? Sounds silly I know. I haven't come up with a game plan for this one; I think I am trying to figure out how to hold the tears back at NCL presentation, graduation and Bravo. Once I get through that I am sure things will be great. Which reminds me I need to find out how last week went for N and E at the 24 hours thing they were doing at PDHS.

Dancing Queens

So I don't have many pictures of myself as a young child and the ones I do I have on display on my piano. That may sound vain but they just remind me of my early years who I was before I became this adult.

This  is going to sound strange but the pictures remind me of my parents - although they are not in the pictures I know they were taking the pictures and that brings me joy.

Today when my cousin Cynthia posted pictures on my timeline it was super touching and it didn't help that I was in sacrament meeting at church and just started tearing up. They were pictures I had never seen and just touched my heart. As I saw a picture of her with her dad (my Godfather Carlos Michaud Jimenez) I couldn't stop but think of him and my mom. I know she misses her dad and I KNOW I miss my mom. I think I have been super sensitive as I have been thinking about my mom for the past week and bothered that I don't remember her voice. Weird huh? I have also just missed those moments when we would cuddle and she would run her hands through my hair.

The picture below was probably taken at Christmas, I remember the dress as being brown with the pink stitching/designs. It was one of my favorites. My mom would always buy me dresses...she spoiled me. I am dancing with my oldest cousin Lulu and Cynthia who is 9 months younger than me.
I didn't plan on blogging about this but I am so as I see this picture I am grateful for my mom and dad. I think this picIture just shows how my family loves to dance and we are dancing queens. I am my mom 's daughter and wish I would have been a better daughter to her and hope that I have made her proud.