Burnt Orange

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Pamela

This is me and my sister at the Grand Canyon in 1972. Yes, we are in matching outfits. People would ask if we were twins. We are not.

That’s our burnt orange Chevy Malibu.

I’m making it sound like the two of us drove out there on our own. She might not look like much but my sister is hell out on the open highway.

I’m scanning and organizing old photos again. This never gets old. I love the old cars. I wish we had better pictures of the cars.

I always think old photos of other people look old but I think my pictures look more contemporary. Is this a common delusion? Is there some really boring explanation about how since I lived it, it’s still alive in my brain (kinda) so it doesn’t seem so remote and long ago?

Bob and I finally got new desktop computers and we were so busy we didn’t even take them out of the box for almost a week.

Now I have it out of the box but for reasons I won’t bore you with, I’m not quite done with my old computer. So it’s still set up. Which means that I am using my new computer in a situation that is so unergonomical it is almost comical. Which is why my posting continues to be wonky. I have notes and photos for posts stuck everywhere.

Meanwhile, I have another major milestone post for tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Posted in pamily | 3 Comments

The Last Mystery of Portlandia

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Pamela

Sign to Red Cap Lake, Marble Mountain Wilderness, CA

I cannot figure out my office building. It’s not the fanciest office building but it’s a nice building. The people in there are attorneys or software something or non-profits. Not slouchy jobs.

I’m on the 10th floor and there is maybe a handful of people that I see regularly. That includes two men who I never see without a phone in their hands. Talking on the way to the restroom. Talking on the way out of the restroom. Co-worker reports they talk on the phone while doing their business in there.

There are a number of people who do their cellphone talking in the common areas and it’s always a bit awkward to walk by and pretend like you aren’t trying to figure out what they’re talking about. Because they wouldn’t be talking in the hallway if they didn’t want everyone to know what they’re talking about.

My point is, I don’t see a lot of people on my floor. There are only three businesses other than ours, all larger. An insurance defense office, a non-profit and some sort of technological sales something. But I don’t see oodles of people around.

However, I go in the women’s restroom maybe 2-4 times a day and there is *always* someone in there. Always. Sometimes two people.

And it always smells like a truck stop after a chili cook-off.

What the hell? I don’t understand how this is even possible. How can so seemingly few people keep that room so constantly maximally busy?

You might guess that all the other floors have tagged the tenth floor women’s restroom as mostly abandoned so have spread the word: do your stink jobs on that floor. Except the stairways are locked for “safety” and our office is adjacent to the elevators so I think I’d notice excessive traffic.

They recently installed this thing called a doorpod and for the first week when you walked into the bathroom it smelled like a simmering a pot of Pez. (Improvement?) But whatever magical smell absorbing technology it uses, it was maxed out right away and no one has come back to replace it.

The whole thing is a mystery.

Posted in doing it wrong | 2 Comments

Old Married People

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Pamela

Fifteen years ago I shacked up with this guy and I think it’s working out.

Posted in pamily | Tagged | 3 Comments

She Works Hard For the Money

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Pamela

Some jobs I’ve had:

Jack-in-the-Box – drive through cashier; grill
Chinese restaurant – server
UC Santa Barbara – government publications library assistant
Santa Barbara Zoo- Chipwich cart
contractors license school – fraud-ish test prep assistant
Panavision Hollywood – marketing assistant
Bureau of Indian Affairs – copy clerk

Posted in doing it wrong | 2 Comments

Pumpkin and Puzzle Update

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Pamela

Guess what I got in the mail today?

Another puzzle book.

I finally sorted through my immaculate record keeping system and found a number to call about my subscription. The person who answered the phone was very nice.

She told me that they received my subscription payment and I was fine on that.

She said the puzzles would have been a mail-in offer.

I don’t think I could have done that and forgotten about it.

For a second I thought someone was playing a trick on me but I couldn’t envision how that would come about. Some of my friends doing tequila shots and then saying, “You know what would be hilarious? If we secretly sent Pam a 40-pack of puzzle books.”

After some research she discovered that another order was mistakenly assigned to my account. She sort of laughed and said, “You have a subscription, too.”

I am free to keep the puzzle books I already have, I’m assuming my subscription is canceled and the person who actually ordered them will be getting his soon. Whew!

This is it so far in the pumpkin patch. The yellow one is my usual Cinderella variety and I’m guessing this green one is the Baby Pam. I fretted last year about my pumpkins being so late and they did fine. We’ll see how this year goes.

Posted in doing it wrong, garden | Tagged | 2 Comments

More Puzzles

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Pamela

Bob didn’t come to California with me due to another family obligation.

He mentioned on the phone that I’d gotten a box he thought was books. I’d ordered something else that was shaped nothing like a book but you never know how stuff is going to be shipped so I didn’t think too much about it.

When I got home there was a huge book-like box and opened it with great curiosity and this is what I found inside.

A ginormous stack of puzzle books.

I definitely didn’t buy these on purpose so I tried to come up with a logical explanation.

This is the same publisher that published my story so my first conclusion was that they were clearing out the warehouse and decided to send their authors puzzle books.

I know. There is nothing logical about that. I was tired yesterday when I got home.

This morning I realized that I just sent Asimov’s money to renew my subscription so now I’m thinking I have a stupid problem to unravel.

I got another puzzle book in the mail today!

Luckily, I come from a family of puzzle-fiends. (No, I’m not kidding.) Too bad these didn’t show up before I went to California.

Posted in doing it wrong, pamily | Tagged | 1 Comment

Vacation Had to Get Away

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Pamela

I’m home.

I had a fabulous trip. Everything about it was perfect except for the last 25 miles of the drive home. There were two car accidents plus tons of road work and it took over an hour. Even the exit to my house was all orange cones for re-paving.

But before that there was awesome company, perfect weather, great swimming, tons of good food, delicious adult beverages, my favorite hike and probably lots I’m forgetting. I wished I had one more day but I was glad I was leaving while I was still having a great time.

I was so busy having fun I didn’t even finish one book.

Now I’m here. I harvested 5 tomatoes. I got green beans, cucumbers and squash from Mom. I’ve got the closest thing to suntan I’ve had in years. (The glare is off.)

And I’ve got a long weekend to enjoy before vacation is really over.

I have tons of email to go through. I probably owe you.

Also I have about 400 photos from this trip plus I’m way behind on Timbers photos. (I’m sure you’ve been concerned.)

Possibly more catch up later or I’ll sit on my butt tomorrow and enjoy goofing off. I’ll see how I feel when I wake up.

Posted in Orleans, pamily | 1 Comment

Did You Hear That Screaming?

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Pamela

This is the plant that I grew from a seed I saved last year and knocked all the leaves off when I planted it.

Not now. It was last night.

I’m setting this to post after I hit the road on Friday.

This is the Early Girl.

I was doing a major watering so my sweetie doesn’t have to worry about it while I’m gone. I was crawling around because tomatoes like to be watered from the bottom and some pink caught my eye.

This is the German Lunchbox. And you know what? I had lunch at the German Deli today. Babe the pig added for perspective.

Then I took a closer look at all my tomatoes. The ripe ones are in the very middle and tough to spot. The same thing happened last year.

Yeah, home grown tomatoes. Stay tuned for me bitching and moaning about how I have too many tomatoes.

Posted in doing it wrong, garden | Tagged | Comments Off on Did You Hear That Screaming?

Hitting the Road

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Pamela

When we were in Grants Pass last month we went to this giant kitchen store. The kind of place you could wander around in for hours (if you’re a kitchen store type of person like me and a huge part of my extended family) and find tons of things you want. The kind of place you can’t leave unless you buy something.

I bought this strawberry corer because we didn’t have hours that day so I didn’t have enough time to do more damage.

It took these photos because of the instructions which if you can’t read say: Insert teeth of corer at stem and twist out.

Just in case you weren’t sure how it worked.

I am hitting the road tomorrow for California. The plan is to hang out with family, drink adult beverages, eat yummy food and do some swimming in the river.

I will offline until next week. Don’t do anything crazy while I’m gone.

Posted in doing it wrong, Orleans, pamily | 1 Comment

The Alarm: 68 Guns

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Pamela


A corner of Bob’s office.

Yesterday morning I had to catch an early flight that meant I had to get up before 5am. I have a psychological barrier for waking before 5am. 5am is fine but 4:45a sounds horrific.

I set my regular bedside alarm plus I set my cellphone alarm. Then when I got in bed I wondered why I worry so much about missing an alarm.

I don’t think I’ve ever slept through an alarm in my life.

I’ve never missed a plane or been seriously late to school or work because of oversleeping.

I’ve had a couple of incidents where I set the alarm incorrectly or power went off or something like that but I usually wake up myself with enough time to get wherever I have to be.

I suspect my paranoia about oversleeping keeps me from sleeping at all. I don’t think I put together 3 hours of sleep on Sunday night. I made to the airport just fine. (Goodness there are a lot of people running around at 5:30a.)

I spent the rest of the day in meetings trying to stay awake. My method was to be fidgety. I thought there were some voodoo tricks like pinching your earlobes or biting your pinky but those didn’t help. I’m not a caffeine person but at lunch I ordered the smallest possible Coke they would offer me. The server stared at me, then looked at her pad then looked back at me. “You threw me off for a second,” she said.

Because NO ONE in America orders the smallest Coke. I was afraid if I drank too much caffeine I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night and I didn’t want one of those gallon tumblers where most would be thrown away.

The Coke didn’t help much but since I never drink it, it was a delicious treat.

Shut out the light at 8:45p and slept like the dead. Woke up at 5:00 without an alarm.

Posted in doing it wrong, sleepless in Vancouver | 2 Comments