Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Channelling Pollyanna

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Annoying or not, I just can't get over the "glads."

 I was informed in staff meeting this morning that I had a flat tire I didn't know about, but right after that I was informed I "have to" fly to Soldotna on the Kenai peninsula next week to help out/observe a low vision clinic for a few days. I was surprised that we are flying, since it is only half the way to Homer from Anchorage--the trip the three of us took this weekend by car.

 I was given the keys to the van to drive to a lunch meeting, but when I got out there I discovered the battery was dead.  Two co-workers put my Barbie tire on my car so I could drive it to lunch and to the tire store. 

 I spent way, way, WAAYY too much money on this trip up here, maxxed out every account I have, was down to one bar on my gas gauge and so didn't go anywhere to celebrate the 4th, but it was very uncrowded in the lounge here where I watched a few hours of stupid TV just like old times, and then remembered I had some SPAM I brought with me so I ran to the store a couple of blocks away and bought a loaf of bread and a couple of oranges with my last $7.38 in small change--enough food to last til a Utah payday at the end of this week.  Found some tea, mustard and mayo in the fridge, and Jon had left a couple of snack packs of peanuts and cashews.  THE LIFE OF RILEY, I tell ya.

Today at lunch, I met the woman I will be accompanying to Soldotna and she told me how crazy busy those clinics are, but how rewarded the folks seem to feel for our service and then she bought my BeniHana lunch.

Signed up with payroll today and rather than have to wait til next pay period to get a check, I found out I will be getting a whole week's check this Thursday.  AND, I got my travel check this morning, so after lunch, I went to the bank to open an account and keep some cash, got my flat tire fixed and came back to the office and STILL my boss didn't have time to give me work.  It's the beginning of the fiscal year and she's very busy--also, she's a bird rescuer and she's got a bunch of baby sparrows in her office that she has to feed regularly so the only thing she really had time for today was to give me papers to sign, and tell me about a conference meeting in the morning.

I'm still looking for a place to stay; it's kind of weird in my head to be staying here, getting out of the shower upstairs as people are beginning to come into work downstairs.  Just something sort of too organic about that, so I took a drive out west--a direction I haven't been yet, just to look around for apartments and even before I saw the Frostee Freeze (with a new "healthy" menu) and a street named Flamingo, I knew I wanted to move there.  (It's only about 10-15 minutes from this part of town where there are tons of Korean stores and restaurants, too.) 
 
Had money tonight to buy a pastrami burger and a diet Mt. Dew.  I'm going back out there tomorrow for lunch to pick up one of their T-shirts for Katy. 
 
I might also buy some corn fritters for myself, and drive around the neighborhood again looking for that private beach in someone's back yard.

I catch myself wondering if this is really my life--my real life.  And then, as I sit in my car at 9 PM trying to shade my eyes from the sun, I just think it's too strange to try to wrap my head around it all. 
 
I don't know about tomorrow, but today I don't even care that my office (and hence my own skin) smells like baby sparrows at the end of the day, that I still don't really know what my job description is beyond the words "rural outreach" and "off the system roads," or that the remote control for the lounge TV is bigger than a breadbox and takes two hands to push the buttons.  I don't care if I come out of a bathroom and go the wrong way and set off the SCREAMING alarm, or have to walk up a flight of stairs to the TV room and resident kitchen, back down and up another one to get to the washing machine and the door to go upstairs again to my two bedrooms (one for sleeping and one for my stuff,)  or that I can hear the young woman in the bedroom across from mine singing or skyping at 3 AM when I wake up with too much light in my eyes.  Well, maybe I care a little bit about setting off the alarm.  Yeeeps! 

I just don't know about tomorrow, but today I've got the glads!

2 comments:

Tammie said...

the book pollyanna is not annoying at all. just the movie one. :D

i'm glad you're glad.

The Provence Family said...

I love to read your posts, I need to take a lesson from you in being positive...and adventurous.