Friday, February 27, 2015

Happy Happy Happy Friday!

It is Friday morning and once again it is snowing here in Delaware -- unexpectedly.  I knew that there was a chance of snow showers this afternoon but its 7:30 in the morning and my car and driveway are already covered.  Oh well, I'm working from home today so as long as I don't have to drive in it, I'm happy.

Something else that makes me happy today -- my new (to me) computer monitor for my home office!  When I work in the office office, I actually have two monitors and its a thing of beauty.  So much more productive being able to work off of two screens at the same time.  When I work from home though, I am working off of a laptop, which is so much more difficult.  Plus when I work in the Impact program there are a zillion different scroll bars and the laptop screen isn't big enough to see them all, so I'm constantly scrolling over horizontally so that I can find the vertical scrollbar and scroll that a little more to find another scrollbar -- it is so frustrating -- even just looking for one button that would take a split second on a big monitor, actually takes me two or three minutes to actually find it.  Sounds ridiculous I know, but it really does add more time and I hate being inefficient.  BUT I actually called our IT people at work to see if they had any spare monitors and they did -- so they hooked me up with a 19" HP monitor plus a keyboard.  I went to Best Buy last night and bought myself the same mouse that I use at work -- its an ergonomic one that uses the trackball -- I love it even though intially they are hard to get used to, but I really wanted to have the same setup at my home office as I do in my work office.  So today is the first day that I am using this setup and I love it! 

And of course its Friday -- who wouldn't be happy about that!  I technically don't even need to put any work hours in today because I am already way beyond my required 37.5, but I will probably work until at least noon -- there's no lack of work, that's for sure.  I could work 24/7 and still not be caught up.  I do have some errands to run this afternoon - pick up prescriptions, pick up Rachel's contact lenses, etc. and then I would love to get some sewing in.  I have an order to make 1 Eagles beach bag and 1 Cowboys beach bag, plus my stepmother's birthday is in a couple of weeks and she is actually going to be here in PA/DE (from Florida) this week so I would like to make one for her and be able to give it to her in person.

I also need to start getting ready for Michelle, Ivan and Lucas -- I can't believe they will be here exactly two weeks from today.  Rachel and I took all of Mikayla's stuff out of Michelle's old room -- Mikayla's toddler bed is in Rachel's room now.  Plus we put a carpet in there -- that room had cold, hardwood floors that were actually covered with paint spatters all over the floor (suffice to say that the last person that painted that room was - ahem - not a professional lol) and I don't want Lucas to be crawling around on that.  I know they will (hopefully) only be with me for a couple of months -- they are very anxious to get their own place as quickly as possible, but I still want to make it halfway decent for them while they are here.  So the room for the most part is done -- but now I need to get out to my shed and reorganize in there -- it has become a dumping ground unfortunately for leftover pieces of furniture and just general junk -- and I need to make room for the furniture that is coming in Michelle's pod.  Thankfully she doesn't have much -- the dresser and crib will go in their room -- so I think the only other stuff is a small kitchen table and chairs, a bed and I think a small bookcase.  But its still enough stuff that I need to make some room for -- hoping for a quasi-warm day within the next two weeks to be able to do that -- the shed does have heat (we call it a shed, but its actually a two-story miniature house complete with central air, heat, electric, cable, phone, full-size fridge -- only thing it doesn't have is a bathroom -- it was basically Joe's mancave when he was alive -- and there is a urinal on the wall (not that that does me any good lol) but he never got around to connecting the pipes to it so it is not functional - geez, if it was functional Michelle, Ivan and Lucas could stay in there lol) -- but I hate to turn the heat on in there for just a few hours (plus it hasn't been turned on now in 6 years so I don't know if it needs to be "tuned-up" or anything first), so I'd rather wait for a day where it warms up a bit.  Starting to run out of time though! 

So I have plenty of things to keep me busy this weekend!  Guess I'd better get back to "work work" so that I can get "done done" and start my weekend!

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Sharon's First Ever Blog Post - So Exciting! LOL

Oh my gosh -- I am about to write my very first blog post ever!  Yes, I am a bit behind the times seeing as how it is now 2015 -- but that's ok - its exciting to learn something new.  My good friend Jane R. has a blog and I am always so interested, intrigued and inspired when I read her posts.  I'm not sure that my posts will be as interesting, intriguing or inspiring, but there might be somebody out there who might find what I have to say quasi-entertaining . . . I have described my life over the years in several different ways:
  • I could write an entire seasons worth of scripts for Desperate Housewives (dating myself a bit, I know . . . )
  • Jerry Springer should just retire and I could take over
  • You can't make this sh*t up
Now is that intriguing or what??? LOL

To introduce myself, my name is Sharon, I am about to be 50 years old in just a couple of weeks (although I really don't feel that old), and I live in Newark, Delaware.  I was married for 20 years when my husband passed away at the very young age of 46 (cirrhosis), which made me a 43 year old widow and single mom.  I have two beautiful daughters, Rachel 23 and Michelle 21 and two lovely grandchildren, Mikayla 3 and Lucas, who will be turning 1 next week - and I love them all dearly.  I am in my 30th year of working for a large pharmaceutical company that I love and that is such a huge part of my life, but I am unfortunately facing the possibility of being laid off in the near future.  Just the thought of it gets me choked up, but I know that from all of my crazy life experiences over the years, that when one door closes, another one (usually) opens, so I am just trying to keep the faith that no matter what happens, I will be ok.  We shall see . . .

When I'm not working, I enjoy being outside near the water (I think that is the pisces in me), spending time with friends and family, and making quilts and sewing projects.   I love to create and to see a finished project -- I get such great satisfaction out of that.  I think it comes from some of the roles I have had at work over the years - in such a big company you usually only get to work on a piece of a project and you can be moved into a different role before seeing it thru to completion.  Right now that has been my therapy, throwing myself into various projects.  The last few months have been a real -- geez, I don't even know what word to use -- let's just say they have really sucked -- so I haven't been sewing as much as I would like to but I have a couple of beach bag orders that I need to get to, so maybe I'll try to get to them this weekend.  Have to admit, I'm very proud of my beach bags -- everyone that has either bought one from me or who I have given one to, just loves them.

Something else that is a big part of my life is Al-Anon.  With my deceased husband being an alcoholic and other family members dealing with addiction issues, Al-Anon has played a huge part in how I live my life, taught me how to let go and not try to control things and how to "stay in my own backyard".  I really do live one day at a time, and to be honest, there were times in my life where I was living one hour at a time.  Its funny how all of the things I've learned from Al-Anon can carry over into everyday life even in matters that aren't drug or alcohol related.  I know I don't get to as many meetings as I should, but my books are on my nightstand and the serenity prayer is hung up on the wall of my cubicle at work, and when I do go to meetings I am always welcomed back with open arms.

Other things I love -- classic rock (Billy Joel, Elton John, the Eagles, Creedence, etc.), the Bachelor (lol), American Idol, Shark Tank, the Duggars and the Kardashians (yea, I know two different ends of the spectrum, but hey, they are people too), and a really good burger!  I'm also a little quirky in that I HATE vegetables,  I don't swallow pills that are bigger than half a pea and I am TERRIFIED of spiders. It could take me an hour to kill a spider -- my theory is that I like to spray them with hair spray first in order to immobilize them, then when they can't move, hit them with half a can of Raid until they actually drown in it.  I can't get close enough to a spider to step on them or to hit them with a fly swatter -- that's just a little too close for comfort, especially because some spiders do jump, you know . . .

Well, I think that's enough for today.  Have a fabulous day!  I sure am going to try . . .

Sharon