Tomorrow should be better...

Wow, today was something! Let me just give you a quick summary before I go to bed...

5:45 am - wake up to my poor coughing sick husband (who hopefully does not have the swine flu) - I want to be helpful, but I'm desperately afraid of getting sick seeing as how 'calling out' is not really an option this week...or probably next

6:15 am - run 3 miles with Susan (go000000... marathon training!)

6:50 am - back home to take a shower and get ready for the day

7:30 am - head over to my church to meet with my pastor...with a quick stop by McDonalds for breakfast (shut up, I ran that morning and I was low on time ok!)

8:00 am - Pastor shows up and has forgotten the keys to the church, so we decide to meet in the truck (this involves me leaving my purse in my car...this will become important shortly)

8:05 am - meet with my pastor (I'm now officially a children's pastor! I'm on a 6 month trial to make sure I'm not overwhelmed with both that and work)

9:05 am - I realize as I try to open my car door that my keys were in my purse (which as aforementioned was on the front seat of my car)...you guessed it - I'm locked out of my car.

9:10 am - my Pastor has to drive me to the courthouse downtowm because there isn't time to wait for AAA or have Sandor bring keys over

9:25 am - I get to the courthouse without 1) an form of ID, thankfully they know my face by this point, 2) no sweater - this is a major problem since they keep the courtroom at about 5 degrees, 3) no water bottle - problematic when you've run that morning and there is nothing to drink while in the courtroom for hours at a time unless you have a water bottle, 4) no book - there is a LOT of waiting involved in being on a jury, and 5) my cell phone, which would obviously assist in actually getting someone to assist me in getting back into my car

9:30 am - 1:00 pm - court...sorry, no details allowed - I will throw out a hilarious story that the marshal told us while we were going through security...we asked him what the most ridiculous thing someone tried to go through security with. He said that a juror one time tried to go through with a bag of marijuana (yes, you've got it, he tried to bring it into a County Courthouse full of police officers and court marshals). When we asked him how he found out the guy had it he said 'he took it out of his pocket to put it through the metal detector' (wow, is all I have to say to that. That guy was an idiot)

1:00 pm - I call Sandor from a borrowed cell phone (oh by the way I also had a borrowed sweater! ) and he was going to come downtown to pick me up and take me to the car

1:15 pm - Sandor gets there and informs me that he forgot the spare key...seeing as how I needed to be in court in 45 minutes that was not going to work, so back out of the car we went and did manage to have a 5 minute lunch together in the park near the courthouse

2:00 pm- 6:00 pm - back to court

6:00 pm - Sandor picks me up and takes me to my car, which I then use to drive to bible study

7:30 pm - I leave Bible study and stop by 1) Earth Fare to get him chicken noodle soup and some honey (for tea), 2) Piggly Wiggly to get him more Niquil, 3) my office to pick up the CSA veggies that Kim thankfully picked up for me earler that day (because I thankfully happened to text her while I was waiting for Pastor and therefore actually got to text her that morning before the phone was locked in the car), and then homeward

8:30 pm - heat up soup for dinner and then eat

9:00 pm - sit down to watch Biggest Loser and read work e-mails...ugh, work e-mails are painful when you know you can't go in the office to fix anything or work anything out

10:15 pm - off to bed for a well deserved night of rest...see you on the flip side!

Glorious, Belize

My dad found the video tapes from our trip to Belize a few years ago and copied them onto a DVD for me. I finally sat down to watch them tonight...the top three things I took away from the DVD:

1) I need to visit the Caribbean - NOW! It has been far too long since I was a diving in that beautiful blue water!


2) It's funny how I remember it as just raining when we were in at the Mayan ruins, Lamanai. Based on the video (which does not lie) it was DOWNPOURING! That however did not stop Brandy and I from climbing to the top of this really high ruin...in a thunderstorm...riiiight.

3) I have used the phrase 'stop-da-lump-bump' far to infrequently. It's a creole phrase for in essence 'get your butt in gear', and while if said by a Belizian in an accent (as heard on the DVD) it is far more entertaining, we were using it rather frequently shortly after the trip. It's very handy and seems far less rude :)

No White Lies

So, I've been chosen for a jury. It's official (actually it was official last Thursday but since I'm not allowed to talk about anything regarding the trial and all I'm in court all day it makes it rather hard to talk about anything, thus very little blogging). And not just any jury, I don't mess around, my first time on a jury will be on a murder trial...yeah, rather crazy! So, you may be missing some posts from me for the next week or so, but man will I have plenty to say once I'm allowed to!

Anyway, seeing as how I've been chosen for a jury with the end of trial being very much not in the near future I had to buy myself a plane ticket to Kathleen's wedding next weekend. We were originally going to drive half way Thursday night, then the rest of the way to my parents' house Friday morning, go to the rehearsal dinner on Friday night, and then the wedding on Saturday. I, however, have court now until 6:00 everyday, which rather impedes on that driving plan. So, we decided that Sandor would drive up Friday, I would fly up Friday night, and then we can drive back together on Sunday, so as to cut down on the number of flights we need to buy. I got online and found the cheapest one way flight, went to the U.S. Air website to purchase it (I figured just in case I needed to cancel it I would buy it from the actual airline - this turned out to be a VERY good decision), and after going through all the selections and entering my credit card number and such a message comes up that says the transaction cannot be completed, try again in a few minutes.

So, I wait a few minutes and try again. Same message. I then call the number on the screen for assistance and book my flight. Having accomplished that part of my list of things that need to be done now that my schedule of life has been flipped on it's head, I continue on with canceling appointments and such, and at the end of the night head to bed. I'm laying in bed and start thinking about what day (as in number of the day) it is and come to the conclusion that it's the 23rd. At which point I think, 'wait didn't she say my flight was for the 24th, it can't be the 23rd, that is next Thursday'. But I think back through the month and realize it is definitely the 23rd, and I think back through the conversation with the US Air lady and realize she definitely said the 24th. And I realize, as my stomach drops that I just bought a ticket for the next day, not the next week.

Beyond the fact that it's 11:30 the night before I have a ticket to fly to D.C., I realized that the ticket was $134 and the change fee for US Air is $150. Right, that would not be a good use of funds by any stretch of the imagination. So, having no idea where this would take me but realizing there was really nothing else I could do about the situation, I called US Air(I didn't even know if they were open at 11:30pm, but in fact they are). The man confirmed that I did in fact have a ticket for the day that started in 30 minutes. He also confirmed that the change fee was $150. I explained to him that it was totally my fault, when we switched from the computer to the phone purchase I didn't check my calendar and I definitely told the person that the flight she listed for me was correct and to buy the ticket.

Thankfully, he took pity on me and after about 20-30 minutes he figured out how to make the change a continuation of the earlier purchase, and thus incur no fee. It was awesome. I generally don't put airlines into the kind and willing to help category, but US Air totally fit that category last Thursday. He said that because I called back immediately (thanks to Sandor suggesting that maybe they were still open) and I told the truth about it not being the US Airways person's fault (thanks to my parents teaching me not to lie), he could work it out for me. Whoo-hoo!

So, to all of those who say that you can only get out of things by lying, I provide this example for your consideration. That little white lie may have cost me $150! In fact, many a person told me to lie during my jury duty interviews so that I didn't get on the jury. Beyond the fact that I just can't imagine lying outright to people, and I certainly can't imagine lying under oath, I have found the whole thing to be rather interesting. And although I'm missing work for a week plus, it will still be there when I get back, so instead I'll get a little break from the normalcy and work and be involved in a process, that most likely I'll never be involved in again. So take that white lies. Have a good week...and wish me jury deliberation luck...when we eventually get to the deliberation phase of the process!

April in Charleston

St. Phillips Tea Room - our favorite springtime lunch tradition!

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Always share

Even between species

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Jury Duty

Jury Duty can be described as a commentary on society. I tend to forget how ridiculous people are when I haven't been outside my little cross-section of the world in a while. Major reality check on that one on Friday, as well as an interesting peak into our judicial system. To start I have to say that while I agree with the inconvenience of the whole jury duty thing I have a difficult time buying into the idea that my time is more important than the possible future of the person that is on trial and so I just can't blow off jury duty as many people can. Call me naive, but it is who I am. While I recognize the flaws in the system (it's pretty hard to miss while you are sitting in a room for 8 hours on a workday), I also honestly think that we've got about the best system I've seen and so if I'm not willing to be part of a jury then I'm not really willing to be part of the society that at this age I've chosen to be part of (kind of the same way I feel about voting - responsibility of being a member of this society people, get your butt in gear and deal with the fact that with rights comes responsibilities).

Ok, back off my soap box. Anyway, within 15 minutes of sitting in the room at the courthouse I realized that it was going to be one of those days where I needed to look very very hard for the positive aspects of the situation or I was going to drive myself crazy with frustration. So, I took out my book and started reading, accepted the fact that I was going to have to write off that day, and figured once we finally started I would simply take it as a day to note interesting things about society and people in general for purposes of my blog. Thus, I give you my thoughts below, in no particular order...

1) I can see why it takes 3 years to get a case through the system - it's insanely inefficient. At least from the perspective of the person called for jury duty. I'm certain that the attorneys who apparently knew they didn't need to get there at 9:00am as we were instructed to do had a fine morning. However, it would have been nice if they had told me I didn't really have to get there until 9:30 at the earliest because they were going to wait for all the late people anyway. Second, it would be ideal if instead of having each of us stand and say our name, our age, our occupation and our spouses occupation they would have just read all that information and more on the 9 page form I had to fill out and send back. But then why would we bother them with such silly things as actually using the information that I was requested to provide? After an entire day of people being asked questions (which by the way had they asked each person those questions personally rather than in a group of 150 people I could have been done in 10 minutes because I didnt have the need to explain how I was really busy, or that my husbands business does such and such, or that for this reason on that I should be excused) I was set free at 2:30. Not sure what was accomplished by my sitting there, but such is life.

2) People are fascinating. Some might say annoying, but since I had to make myself look on the bright side I went with fascinating throughout the day. Just looking at the attorneys was in itself interesting. Each of them you could see had a very specific way of noting information while they were listening to the intros, they had specific books in front of them, and each one was different on how the laid them out. Not that it was surprising, but a lot of times you don't see how different people are as obviously.

3) Then there were the jurors...oh, good Lord. I have to say one thing that I really cannot stand is people who think that their time is more valuable than yours. This can come in a number of different ways, but on Friday I noticed it with the people who just couldnt' shut up about how this was inconvenient. Really? You think there is anyone in the room who found it convenient to take off work and sit in a room accomplishing nothing all day? Well perhaps the people who I felt bad for when they had to announce to the entire room that they were unemployed (yikes, talk about an uncomfortable intro) - but then again, perhaps they had some job searching to do, you never know. Which is exactly my point, you never know what is going on in people's lives, which means you shouldn't assume that whatever is going on in yours is more important. There was one woman who when she was supposed to say her name and age launched into how she couldn't stay for jury duty because she was too busy. And then she stood up multiple times throughout the day to announce again how busy she was and wanted to be excused.

4) The use of humor as a social tool was also pretty interesting. It just pointed out how different people are when you would have someone cracking jokes during their 30 second intro, after someone who was very serious and answered only the questions listed, after someone who rambled on about info very unnecessary, but that they thought was important to throw out there, like how many years they were married, what their company does, how it's important to buy local goods (yeah, that lady actually had the balif make fun of her, who up until that point was doing a very good job not making fun of anyone).

5) People have strange jobs. My favorite was self employed geologist. Really? Isn't that just a fancy way to say unemployed? Overall it seemed like the largest subsections of jobs were people that work for MUSC (the medical university in Charleston) or were teachers.

I'll head back on Tuesday for more interviews, and then I guess we'll see if I get picked for the jury. So far I've done pretty good making myself pay attention to what makes the situation entertaining rather than frustrating, we'll see if my powers of self control can continue...

Long Time, No Talk

Wow, I've been rather slack recently on the blogging, eh? My parents and sister came in town last week for Easter, and then Brandy had spring break last week so she and John stayed in town all week. I took off work all day Monday, then took off Tuesday morning, had to drive to Edisto to work Tuesday night, had to drive to Beaufort all day on Wednesday, then had to drive half way down again for a meeting Thursday morning. Brandy came back down Thursday so I left work early and then I had Jury Duty on Friday - which itself is it's own story! Saturday Brandy and I hosted a jewelry party, then we scrapbooked with Ashley, and then this morning she taught my Sunday School class about autism and when I switched to teaching Children's Church she headed back to NC. So in essence I've been otherwise consumed trying to soak in as much family time as possible. I always get a little melancholy when my family leaves so I am now sitting down to get my life on track again after my much fragmented existence of last week.

Task #1 was to start marathon training - which I accomplished by running 3 miles after I took a sweet 3 hour nap after church.

Task #2 was to finalize my marathon training schedule - half way accomplished on that one.

Task #3 was to blog so that I could reassure everyone I had not fallen off the face of the earth.

and Task #4 will be to read through the 175 e-mails from last week so that tomorrow morning I can attempt to get as much done as possible before I have to head back downtown on Tuesday for more Jury Duty.

So, off I go...we will see how much I can accomplish before the bed begins calling my name again!

Quote of the Day

'I feel like I'm rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic'
-brought to you by my boss when describing his week

Career Fair

Today I got a letter in the mail from an elementary school that I and one of our other DNR staff is going to later this month for their career fair. The letter had questions of potential topics for discussion with the students. Here are the questions and some of my answers:

What education or training is necessary for the field?
-It depends on what portion of my job you are referring to, I'm probably not actually qualified for most of my job duties.

What path did you travel to get where you are today?
-A very convoluted one.

What is a 'day in the life' like at your job?
-Oh, it can range daily. Most recently it's involved battling caterers, answering 8000 e-mails, contemplating performance measures, and figuring out how to pay someone $2000 when you thought you only had to pay $400.

What type of employee do you look for?
-One that reads minds - speak to Anna for information on her qualities.

What advise would you give to a student today what would help prepare them for a career in your field?
-Learn to live on very little money and begin eating cupcakes regularly so that your body begins to assimilate sugar well.

Sugar

A little post-defense celebration for Anna...delicious!

This is the first time I've been on the opposite side of the defense table. It was far less nerve wracking being on the committee as opposed to the person giving the defense presentation! And Anna did superb - she made her project supervisor proud!

Never Say Never

I said I was never going to run a marathon again...so guess what I'm doing in October with Rachel?

Now to find a training plan...and get moving...literally!

Birthday in the Lone Star State

I realized as I finished up my birthday this week that I don't ever remember being away from home on the actual day of my birthday. Home in my life is a relative term and could have been my parent's house, or wherever I was living at the time. But, I don't know that I've ever been on vacation or on a work trip. So, it was interesting to be on a work trip over my birthday. Thankfully the trip that it happened to be was with the greatest people on earth - my fellow CTPers. The one thing about our CTP meetings is that we tend to have a lot in common because it's such a weird job. Since I've now been with them for 4 years, it wasn't as if I was on a random trip without a lot of friends around, and in fact it was quite fun!

The day started off rather early. Mom was the first person to wish me happy birthday (which is pretty normal :) ). We happened to be headed out for a field trip that morning, so I got a lovely boat trip with birding as my birthday morning. We saw whooping cranes (or whoppers to the birding community, I had never heard that term before), in addition to a bunch of other birds that I never knew existed. Some of my favorites were the redish egret and the caracara, but the nice thing was that he actually explained what you were looking for instead of saying 'there is a ---' and expecting that you knew what in the world he was talking about. The day was gorgeous and there is very little better than hanging out in the sun on a boat.

Lisa and I on the boat

one of the whooping cranes

We then headed back for our actual meetings (all good things eventually do have to end of course). That portion of the day was not quite as superb. The headache that was threatening to really become a headache got worse the longer the day went on, and that combined with conversations on external reviews, and annual work plans, and advisory committees can push most anyone over the edge. I made it through, however, and on the bus ride back to the hotel everyone sang me happy birthday which was very cute.

Then we were back out on a boat for an evening cruise and dinner. One boat ride in a day is impressive, so two was quite exciting. We made paper plate awards for everyone which was highly entertaining both to make and hand out. My one award was the Amelda Marcos award making fun of the fact I had all those shoes with me, and the other one was the 'To the Point' award - go figure, I'm not one for beating around the bush when commenting. We watched the sunset and then headed back to the dock, where a few of us walked back to the hotel rather than taking the bus again. One of our group members wanted to get ice cream so when we saw an little ice cream store with an 'open' sign we were quite excited. We were then very entertained to see a sign on the door that said 'Please call ---- if you want ice cream. I'm in the back cleaning the porch.' That is one ice cream store sign I've never seen, but once we figured out the area code we were on our way for an ice cream cone. I couldn't decide which flavor until I saw there was a birthday cake ice cream flavor and figured that was an obvious choice. It was a very good one as well - vanilla ice cream with chocolate cake, icing, and sprinkles.

our random ice cream store

me and my ice cream cone in front of one of the many large animals in Port Aransas - apparently they have a thing for them, I think this shark was my favorite though, you could walk in his mouth!

I closed out the day by laying in bed just happy to not have anything else planned. The week was a lot of fun, but it was jammed packed so moments when you were just laying in bed relaxing were nice. Overall, I would highly recommend a birthday spent with fun friends, whether it involves work or not. And you can hardly beat two boat trips in one day!