August 19, What is my biggest phobia?

What is my biggest phobia?

Well, to make sure that I REALLY understood the word phobia I decided to look it up.

According to Merriam-Webster -

The simple definition of phobia:  an extremely strong dislike or fear of someone or something.

The full definition:   an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.

I am not fond of either definition - too extreme. There are things that I'm not comfortable with, but not so much that I would avoid those situations at all costs.

So, what is my phobia? I am not comfortable at gatherings that are larger than small group size - unless I choose the people that will attend. Like if we do a party of  epic proportions like our pumpkin parties of years past. Even if there is an event that our church would be hosting, I really have to psyche myself up for anything where we'll be sitting around and visiting with other people. The exception would be when the packing party is happening and that's not much of a problem for me because that's work and I like to do something if I need to be around people. I don't necessarily enjoy things like baby or bridal showers, unless they are for someone that I am well acquainted with. Just too much chatter in those gatherings.

I'm kind of a loner of sorts. I don't mind being alone, but at the same time I do need to be with "normal" people now and then. Normal being people that I invest time into and with whom I have shared a long friendship with. It is true that I can count on one had the people that I trust enough to share the good, bad and ugly with any day of the week. Then there is the next level who might get the good and bad. Then there are those that I cannot trust - the ones I choose to not hang around if I can help it.

Yep...but I'll probably stay in my bubble for as long as I can or until next Monday.

Gonna Give This A Go

I've been away from this blog for a little while as I've been busy with my garden blog. What I should do is combine all of my stuff and make one giant blog...hmmmm....

Okay, so I'm going to attempt this challenge of answering a question a day here on Nancy's Notes. An acquaintance of mine is doing a 30 day challenge so I thought I would look up something that I could do as well...and found - 365 Questions. Which is pretty cool - because when it comes to this space I have almost NO imagination. I searched for the August questions because, well, we are in August and I may as well get going on this thing.

Here we go!

Question: Who was the first person you saw today.

Well, this one is rather silly as Tom was the first person I saw and he usually is unless something extraordinary happens and he is NOT. Weird how being married does that.

SO - outside of the home...the first person I saw, well that would be one of the girls at Starbucks -Chatty Sarah. While I like Sarah and all, she can, on occasion, suck the life out of me. It amazes me that she can talk and talk and talk! She is a talker - bless her heart.

If I were to continue on this question -  the first person I saw when I arrived to work would be Chief Taylor. I HAD to stop in his office on my way in. I HAD to ask where the chief was and if he would be coming back...YES, we are that bad. As it turns out, the chief returned to work (just now) after spending the majority of the day away - sad face. We were pretty excited that there was the possibility that he would be gone the whole day. I knew better though, he can't stay away. He is physically unable.

Oh hey let's keep going on this - the first person I saw when I returned from lunch. Some dude who was lingering outside of the front door. He wanted to drop off his unwanted medications. Sorry dude, we don't take medications. Why do people want to bring all of their crap to us? Shoo, go away people. Call before you pop in and PLEASE don't hassle me on the phone when I answer your question a way that is not what you want to hear. What I say to myself when someone is wanting something that we don't provide... "Buh-bye, hanging up now..."

What that - I'm "hanging up" now...That was fun. Until tomorrow and writing a little bit more...

Upgrade

Yep, we did it...we FINALLY joined the rest of humanity and got ourselves smart phones. I have made this transition a bit quicker than Tom, but he's getting there.

As usual, I'm not one to answer my phone...I might return a phone call if you leave a message. This is a what happens if answering the phone is part of your job. At the end of the day I have no interest - even if I DO like you.

So, with that said, I'm good with Messenger and Facebook messages (and texts if you have my number).

So. High. Tech.

(This post was created entirely on my kindle...yep, high tech)

Vacuum Coffee

We've had this handy coffee brewer for a few years, but it had been sitting up on the shelf for a long time. This week we (I) decided that we should get it out and use it. The video was my research on how to use the darn thing...it had been THAT long ago! Once we got it set up and on the stove, Tom and I set up a couple of chairs  around the stove and we watched it go to work.

It's a sad little life, but it seems to work for us!

Hobbit Day!

Gandalf & Bilbo sitting down for some tea

Today is Hobbit Day - I stumbled upon this while on my google homepage... Anyway, it's already too late to have Breakfast and Second Breakfast, but there is a whole day ahead of me! There is still time for Elevenses, Luncheon, Afternoon Tea, Dinner and Supper. Time to get started!

Some of the foods that Hobbits are fond of are as follows:

Mushrooms, Mince Pies, Fish & Chips, Blackberry Tarts, Bread and lots of BUTTER, Pickles, CHEESE, Food made from vegetables such as corn, turnips, potatoes and onions, Honey and foods made with honey, Scones - Wine, Beer, Tea and Coffee.

I think that EVERY day should be HOBBIT DAY!

Annoyed

Okay, so let's say that you are a bike commuter. You live relatively close to your work and so you carry what you need in a backpack and schlep it to work on your BACK...hence the need for a BACKpack. Anyway, so you carry your clothes for the day, cell phone, money and other little things. You don't want to carry too much, that would be silly. So, you get going one morning and have a pretty decent ride to work. You park your bike...get ready to take a shower and get ready for your work day.

Only, when you get into your locker - which locks, but isn't THAT secure - you find out that your bath towel is missing. Actually, that would be towels...like two. What would you feel at that moment when you realize that you do not have a bath towel?

Well, that's something that happened to me 3 or 4 years ago.Carrying a towel in the backpack would be doable, but if I don't have to I'm not gonna. I went into a minor panic...that's what I did. I immediately went looking for someone who might be able to help me with my dilemma. Fortunately, they found some newly delivered shop towels from the linen company that would just have to do for this particular day.

Yeah, my towels were taken. I thought they were gone...you know, like stolen. They weren't stolen. They were re-purposed into shop towels (kind of ironic that I was given shop towels as replacements). My bright yellow bath towels were both used to wipe up something greasy....

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! Why would anyone think that's okay?

Okay, so fast forward to just about a month ago. I have since been invited to use what is now the "ladies" bathroom in the main building instead of using the shop area shower/bathroom...(thanks Kristan). I store my personal items in a locker just outside that bathroom. You know typical stuff, make-up, hair dryer, brush and other accoutrements. Anyway, I arrive at work after a visit to the gym and get my stuff all ready to go, take my shower - I have my towel so all is well. Until I pull my hair dryer out of my personal toiletry bag and see that it has been dropped and where the cord comes out of the handle, yeah, it's cracked and broken. Someone got INTO my bag and did something with my hair dryer that caused it to break and then they put it back INTO my bag and back INTO my locker - which is clearly labeled with my name on the door. Go figure.

Ooh, but wait, the whole getting into stuff that doesn't belong to you doesn't just end with bathroom related items. Let's talk food. Yes, food. I noticed last summer that someone had been snacking on my cheese, granted it was fake-o cheese slices, but still...I had brought in for my veggie patties that I had for lunch and other sandwiches. Yes, seriously...eating food that belongs to someone else. After that little supply was depleted, I didn't buy anymore cheese to put into the mini-fridge in the Ready Room. That lasted until about a few weeks ago and I decided I wanted some cheese to snack on. So silly me, forgot about the whole cheese incident from last year and left my cheese sticks in the mini-fridge....

You know what happened - 

Over the next few days my cheese disappeared. What really killed me was the fact that I had stashed my cheese in the drawer of the fridge (both times). Fine. I did another "test" just a couple of weeks ago and sure enough, my cheese was disappearing quicker than I was eating it. I don't keep cheese at work anymore or any other food for that matter. Anything on my desk is fair game, but I haven't been putting anything out on my desk much in the last 6 months.

Are you getting the sense of the boundary issues I have been experiencing at work?

So this week Tom drops me off at work after a visit to the gym and I get all situated in the bathroom, get ready to take a shower and open the door to the shower and find that I have no shampoo. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! My shampoo bottle was totally gone...now I would have remembered using all of my shampoo, so really...where did it go? I had to steal some from someone else (Sorry Kristan).

There was a moment that I THOUGHT that I might be a little crazy, but that thought in itself is crazy.

I just don't get when it became okay to get into stuff that belongs to other people. Whatever happened to respecting other people's property? It's not like I'm an ogre or something - ask me to use something and I'll say okay...need some shampoo, sure have a squeeze or two. Are you hungry? Oh hey, I have some food that I am willing to share. Wanna use my nice fluffy bath towel(s) to wipe up grease, yeah, I'm saying NO to that. Just don't assume it's okay, right?

Yeah, I'm a little annoyed...