Back from AK

Well…I made it back from Alaska safe and sound. But I’m really having trouble adjusting to being back on East Coast time (as I predicted I would).

I just thought I’d share a few pictures from my trip…

Here was the view from my hotel in Downtown Anchorage:

That darn Conoco building directly across from me (seen in the right on the bottom picture) kept me from getting an even more spectacular view of the mountains.

Here was the hotel…

You can also see the hotel in this shot of Anchorage taken from Earthquake Park:

Unfortunately, the clouds were covering the mountains that day. And yes, I said “Earthquake Park”:

Alaska is a very active earthquake area – the park is where more than 100 home slipped into the earth during a huge quake in the 1960s.  Today it’s a lovely park with hiking and cross-country skiing trails.  I was surprised at the abundance of cross-country skiing trails.  They have a very complex system of trails covering quite a few parks – some of the trails are even lighted for night skiing.

Just across the street from my hotel was the shop that sold the $80 musk-ox yarn…

I also grabbed a quick shot of the moose I saw (I was trying not to anger it, so I didn’t get TOO close):

As you can see, there was quite of bit of snow on the ground. That is one reason I am glad to be home…spring is finally here in NJ and everything around my house is starting to bloom…

Ahhh…there’s no place like home…

Almost Time to Come Home

Today is my last day in Alaska – and I’ve just finally adjusted to the time change.

It’s been a very productive trip, but I’m ready to come home.  There is a real lack of estrogen up here – the ratio of men to women must be about 5 to 1.  Now…if I were a single woman, this would be a good thing.  And I have seen many “Men in Trees” up here.  But after spending  a week with the same seven men in the same conference room…let’s just say I’ve heard enough hunting and fishing stories to last a lifetime.  I am a real animal lover, but kept quiet (a difficult thing for me)until I heard the statement, “I’m such a good hunter, I can actually get the deer to come up to me and let me pet them…” – then I had to chime in, “…before you KILL them??!!”.  Like I said, I think it’s time to come home.

I had a chance to drive around last night and see some of the local sites yesterday afternoon.  The mountain views are spectacular – I even got to see a moose by the side of the road.  I am also very impressed with the local food – two nights in a row, we went to the Glacier Brewhouse and had fresh halibut and king crab legs – yum!  I also had a creme brulee in a bowl the size of a small casserole dish – so much for watching my weight!

I also had a chance to do a little bit of shopping – I picked up some souvenirs for the kids.  But while I was at the local mall, I walked right in on an actual fist-fight between two young girls – very ‘Jerry Springer’.  I had to go to the mall to pick up some boots because Anchorage had an ‘unusual weather phenomenon’ for April – 6-12 inches of snow!  They even allowed the federal employees to go home early – they even close for snow in Alaska, apparently.  But the snow totally threw off my pre-packed wardrobe and I had to improvise.  Can I put those boots on my expense report?

I also stopped by the Qiviut Knitting Store right around the corner – I was hoping to pick up some of their unique yarn made from the undercoat of the arctic musk ox – but for a small skein, it was $80!  A little too much for me…

Well…it’s back to the office this morning, then back to the East Coast on the red-eye…

Looking Ahead

It’s finally spring! I’ll be so glad to see winter go – I am just NOT a cold weather person.

I started to look ahead to April and I realized that I have several interesting events coming up next month:

• I will be taking a business trip to Anchorage, Alaska for one week at the beginning of the month
• I will be turning 40 years old in the middle of the month
• I will be taking a girls’ trip to Melbourne, Florida at the end of the month

Oh – and I’ll find out whether or not I may have cancer. I can’t begin to describe the huge amount of stress that this has had on me. I’m a strong enough person to deal with anything that comes my way, but this not-knowing thing is for the birds…

Daisy The Easter Bunny

Just a cute photo of Emily and our dog Daisy with some bunny ears…

Great Weekend, But No Camera!!!!

We just got back from a wonderful weekend in the Poconos, but I forgot to take my camera with me! 

I took the camera out of my purse when I started work and had to go through the security checks everyday before I got my badge.  By the way, my shoes set off the metal detector EVERY SINGLE DAY (no matter which shoes I wore).  I had to make sure I always had nice socks on since I knew I would have to take my shoes off.

Anyway…it’s a shame that I didn’t have the camera with me, because there was so much to see.  The campground received 8 inches of snow the day before we arrived, so the whole place was like a beautiful winter wonderland.

But it was still relatively warm and sunny, so it was fun to play outside in the snow.  The kids and I went sledding down the hill that leads to the lake all of yesterday afternoon and this morning, too. The lake was entirely frozen, so we could sled REALLY far.

After sledding, Emily and I went swimming in the indoor pool – it’s not often that get to go sledding and swimming both in the same day!

We also walked around downtown Stroudsburg and had a great meal at a new Mexican restaurant there.  The food reminded me of the Mexican food I liked so much in San Diego – all of it covered in lettuce, tomato, sour cream and guacamole!

We also checked out Hickory Run State Park on our way home.  The lake there wasn’t quite frozen, so we just took a little walk with the dogs.

I had such a nice time and felt so relaxed after all the craziness of the last few weeks, we’ve decided to go back to the mountains each and every weekend until we have to give up our winter seasonal spot at the end of March.  There’s just something about being together as a family without the distractions at home that feels so peaceful and rejuvenating.

We’re thinking that next weekend we want to try snowtubing…now, we’ll see how relaxing THAT is!

Going to Alaska?

Just a quick note about my new job…

I hate to admit this (I mean I REALLY hate to admit this), but I’m actually enjoying my job right now.

Did I actually say that out loud?!?  Please don’t tell my husband (he never reads this blog)!

I was very reluctant to go back to work as you all know – I had fallen into a nice little routine here with the kids, my crafts and volunteer work.  But I was working SO hard and wasn’t making any money.  And we really needed some extra money…

So now that I’ve been at work for a while, I’ve fallen into a nice routine there as well.  I’m supporting the Alaska Flight Service Modernization system as well as the OASIS system, also in Alaska. 

I thought it would be difficult to get back into the technical part of the job, but it turns out that it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.  I worked with this stuff for so many years that after just a few weeks on the job, I feel really confident (did I actually say that?!?!) about what I’m doing.  And the money part is nice too. 🙂

But here’s the thing – I think some people that I’m working with don’t appreciate my being there.  There have been rumblings that  perhaps I am there to take their jobs or – at the very least – to make them look bad. 

But they really shouldn’t worry.  First of all, the only reason that I’m able to pick up things so quickly is that, like I said, I worked with this stuff for YEARS!  Sections of some of the documents we’re using as references were actually written by me years ago.

And I don’t want anyone else’s job – I’m happy with my own small 3-day-a-week part-time position where I come in, do my part and go home at the end of the day.  And I don’t want to take over or be in charge – I’m happy just doing my own little parts and leaving the big worries to others.

It’s difficult to know that people aren’t happy with my being there – it really bothers me when people don’t like me (and I’m sure there are lots of people who don’t like me!).  But I’m hoping that once they get to know me and see that I’m not this power-hungry (who the heck wants power, anyway?) person that they think I am, they’ll adjust.  Maybe eventually they’ll come to see me as a resource and not a threat.

Oh – and as for the title of the post, I may be going up to Alaska in a few weeks.  I’m actually looking forward to it – I’ve been there several times before and just loved it!  Of course, maybe I won’t go since it may bother some of the other employees…but that’s fine too.  Like I said, I’m actually just enjoying doing my little piece of the giant Alaska puzzle.

One more odd thing that happened at work recently…as I was coming up to my desk from lunch yesterday, I saw this large group of kids on a tour and some of them started to wave at me.  I thought that was odd until I realized that several of them were students of mine from my Computers and Society class last semester!  They were at the Technical Center for a tour and to do a presentation on a project they were doing for their Software Engineering course.  I stopped to chat, found out where their presentation was and slipped in for a few minutes to listen in.  They seemed to be doing a fine job and I was very proud to see them there – good luck guys!

Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day was a little weird this year…

First, my dad had hip replacement surgery that day.  I’m happy to report that he’s doing well, but it hasn’t been an easy road for him.

Also, I was at work all day.  I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that my husband didn’t send me flowers or anything at work (especially since we work in the SAME building!).  He did pick me up a nice bunch of tulips on the way home from work, though.

But I don’t think he understood that I would have liked to receive something during the day – something to have on my desk (now that I actually HAVE a desk) to remind me that someone loves me.  By the time he picked up the tulips, it was 5:30pm and I had a church meeting at 7:00, so it was kind of anticlimactic at that point.  And he didn’t give me a card, either…

Oh well – at least I have someone who loves me, even if he has difficulty reading my mind as to exactly how I expect him to  show it (doesn’t every woman have that problem?).

Hmmm…maybe it has something to do with the valentine card I made for him…

Sorry for the glare on the photo – the heart is stamped on a shiny, glittery paper that was difficult to photograph.

And yes, that is an anatomically correct human heart on the card.  It’s from Paula’s Kit Club – and the second I saw it, I knew that it would be perfect on a card for Mike.

Although some of his coworkers said that if I actually have a rubber stamp of a human heart, I have WAY too many rubber stamps.  Is there such a thing as too many rubber stamps?!?!

Life’s Stressors

I mentioned in previous posts how much I dislike change.  The only thing I dislike more than change is when I have to be the one to tell people that bad news that change is coming.

We are going through a transition period in our church and as the chairperson of the Staff/Parish Relations Committee, it is my job to inform the staff and the congregation of the changes.

After some very heated meetings a few weeks ago (I think this is about when I stopped posting), it was my job to tell three staff members that they were going to be asked to step down for financial reasons.

I understand why the decision was made, but I have to say that I was disappointed with the way it was presented to me.  I was told of the situation just minutes before a big meeting so that I had no time to react or even to consider alternatives. 

As a result, I reacted emotionally which was probably not the best thing to do.  And even worse, other people reacted even more emotionally – I have never heard the words "pray on it" used in such a negative, mean-spirited way.

Anyway…after the stress of those meetings, I was supposed to tell these three people that their lives were about to change.  I couldn’t sleep the night before my meeting with them – I just kept going over exactly what I was going to say.

I woke up that morning (well…I never actually went to sleep, so I guess I never ‘woke’ up) and got the kids off to school.  I didn’t feel well physically after that difficult night – I even had this weird case of the hiccups that were so intense that they caused a great deal of discomfort.  Then I was working updating the school sign and started having horrible chest pains.  I tried to work through it, but then had difficulty catching my breath and the pains kept getting worse and worse.  I sat down for a minute and one of the teachers walked by and asked if I was okay.  I told her that I wasn’t really feeling well and the next thing I know, someone called 911, the school went into a ‘Level 2 Lockdown’ state, the police and an ambulance showed up and I was rushed off to the hospital.  When I cause a scene, I cause a SCENE!!!!!

My friend Denise followed behind me in her car with her 4-way blinkers on (thanks, Denise, for risking your life in traffic for me) and all the way to the hospital, I just kept thinking of how I wasn’t going to make my 1:00 meeting at church.  I even had the EMT call Denise and ask her to call the church for me. 

I kept telling the EMT (and the nurses and doctors when I got to the hospital) how silly I felt.  I knew that this was caused by stress, but the pain wouldn’t let up.  The chest pains ended up lasting for about an hour or two and everything checked out okay at the hospital (which made me feel even more silly – at least if I were going to cause that kind of a spectacle, there’d better be something wrong with me!).

My pastor heard of the commotion and came to visit me in the E/R.  She shook her head and asked if the church had caused this to happen to me – I looked at her and told her that yes, it did, in a way. 

Fortunately, she took over and was the one to tell the staff the bad news (which made me feel horrible – how much of a wimp am I that I couldn’t do it myself?!?).  I still haven’t had the chance to really speak with them personally – I don’t know what I can say at this point.

Oh – and I also had to make the announcement to the congregation the following Sunday at church.  This time, at least I didn’t end up in the E/R.  I took my time and wrote out exactly what I wanted to say, trying to be sensitive to everyone’s feelings.

As I read the news, I heard some small gasps from the pews, and as I walked back to my seat, someone said to me, "It must suck to be you right now."  That’s putting it mildly! 

But the sort-of-good news is that at least since everyone heard of my ambulance ride (it’s a small town – word travels fast!), I at least had the sympathy vote so that no one yelled at me or threw things at me…at least not yet.

I’m a Working Girl Again

Sorry I didn’t post a photo yesterday – I’m trying to get back into the groove of this working-thing again.

I don’t know if I posted exactly what it is that I’m doing at my job – my official title is “Test Specialist” and my job is basically to support the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) testing of various flight service systems, mostly dealing with Alaska (strangely enough, I actually have a bit of experience in dealing with Alaska flight service issues – you didn’t know that about me, did you?). I am working for EIT, a government contractor.

Let me warn you – I may start to throw a bunch of acronyms around here. Please don’t ask me what some of these acronyms stand for. Even though I started working with the FAA almost 20 years ago (YIKES! I’m old!) and while I know what the acronyms ARE, I don’t know exactly what some of them officially STAND FOR – and there’s even debate amongst FAA old-timers themselves as to what the true meaning of some of them is.

For those who know me from my FAA days, I am working on testing PTRs in the Alaskan version of OASIS (a system near and dear to my heart since I helped to write the original software) as well as helping out with the new AFSM (Alaskan Flight Service Modernization) program – that acronym I know. 🙂

The funny thing is, even though I’ve been away from the industry for over 6 years now, it’s almost as if I never left. I saw many familiar faces in the halls, heard some familiar voices on the OASIS teleconference the other day (hello to Chris, Aaron and Bob if you’re reading this!) and after briefly reading over some documentation, it’s all starting to come back to me.

However, I’m still not settled in since my cubicle is still full of stray equipment. I also do not have a badge – this may not sound like a big deal, but without a badge, I have to go through security every morning (like going through airport security – and my shoes always set off the metal detector, so I end up having to take them off every day. Note to self – always wear socks without holes) to get a visitor’s badge. This also means that I can’t walk around the building by myself – someone always has to escort me….which is a real pain when I have to – say – go to the bathroom. But this is just par for the course – badges can take anywhere from a week to several months to come in. I’d better stock up on new socks.

I’ll be working three days a week – just 24 hours total. Just enough to get me back out there (and earn some money) but still stay connected to the kids and home. And I’m off today, so I’m trying to catch up on all my errands while I can. Which includes heading out to buy a pair of replacement boots for my brown pair which broke yesterday morning just before I headed out the door…fashion crisis!

PS – I just found an online acronym dictionary…and even it has various meanings for some of the FAA acronyms…

Finally!

I am finally starting my new job tomorrow!

I feel like a kid on my first day of school – where do I sit?  What am I going to do for lunch?  Will the other kids like me? 

I’ve always felt uncomfortable on the first day at a new job, a new class, a new anything – we’ll see how this one goes…