IT'S COME AND GONE

Well, it (CHRISTmas) is finally over for another year. I am relieved and bored and perplexed and just a bit worried. Thank you Pi-day Dave for the crock pot and the electric sweeper. They are both really cool and I really like both of them. I am excited to try them both. I bought myself two books "An Inconvenient Book" by Glen Beck and "The Forgotten Man". I think it will be awhile before I finish them. Did any of the rest of you get the third installment of Moms book of family pictures? I talked to her on the phone on Christmas and she was worried that no one got them. I told her that I got mine, but she wonders if anyone else did. so if you have received yours in the mail or otherwise gotten it, will you please let her know. I love those books, I just wish that I and DH had more photos for her to use. I feel kind of like the left out or lost sheep, I have no children and nothing of note to show for my life. It is a really lonely feeling. When I'm gone who will even notice? When I am old and decrepit who will take care of me, or will I just be put in a home to molder my remaining years away? It is a unsettling thought. All I do is work and then come home and take care of Raymond and the pets. Work, feed people and others, do what little chores I have energy for, sleep or rather TRY to sleep) and start over again the next day. Oh I forgot I also try to pay everything , at least a little of it, every paycheck. I got up today at 5:30 A.M. to get ready for work. I sat down in my chair in the living room with my toast and Dr Pepper, no caffeine in it, set my breakfast on the table, bowed my head to say a blessing. Next thing I know it is 9:00 A.M. Whaaat? So much for getting to work at 7:00! I called in and said I wasn't coming in today. We have been super busy before Christmas and even have been getting overtime. Now we don't have anything to do. Yesterday K and I cleaned out the lockers(Fridges) and did dishes, We both left at noon. Today we had a little more to do inasmuch as we had to make 2# of honey butter. Like that will take 2 people 8 hours to do. We can use vacation hours if we want to, because we only need to come in when needed and we can leave when done. I am not going in tomorrow either. I am worried about my job status however because I have no Vacation time left at the moment, so I will not get any pay for the days I don't come in or for the hours that I do not work. I will get holiday pay however. But there is not enough work for eight hours a day. I don't think anyone is coming in tomorrow. I am a worry wart, so I think I will get the reputation as a lazy person that has no work ethic and thus be fired for not working my full 8 hours a day during these slow days until January 2nd. This is far from the truth, but I am not as willing to work myself to exhaustion as I once was, it has never gotten me anywhere but sick. It is a pain to live my life as a drudge without any acknowledgment of my slaving away or any advancement or rarely even any compliments.
I really have a sleep problem, today after the falling asleep fiasco at breakfast I still slept until around 12:00 noon. I then revived enough to get dressed and take out the garbage and retrieve the newspaper and mail. I then fried us up a steak (not a very tender one) and zapped a couple of potatoes. I really didn't get energy until about 5:00 or 6:00 P.M. This is not an uncommon sleep pattern for me. I am now wide awake an energized. but it is after midnight. Why does this happen? Something must be wrong with me. I have always been a night owl but it is getting worse. I like to be awake late at night, but I have no desire to be anywhere but in the house at this time of night,. A night owl, but not a party person. sigh! I am sorry that this missive may be a little (or even a lot gloomy Gusish, but I do not have anyone else to talk to so unfortunately you poor folks get the fallout. I hope I can be a little more cheerful next time.

GROCERIES

Went shopping today, total amount spent. $225.00. Ouch!

CHRISTMAS RUSH ET EL

Boy oh boy, are we busy at work. I am so happy that I only have to work in salads, and not hot foods. We have been getting huge orders for ham dinners with funeral potatoes and veggies, turkey dinners with dressing etc, chicken dinners with potatoes and gravy and veggies, chicken cordon bleu with rice , and massive amounts of baked potatoes like 13 50# cases of baked potatoes in 1 day. Thank heavens I and the other salad area people only have to do things like 9 Mexican pizzas (7 layer bean dip) put on large 16"round plastic trays. 20 fruit trays or more, same amount of veggie trays, relish trays, fruit kabobs, acini de pepe salads, deli pasta salads, various dips such as shrimp,crab, or onion dips and th most tedious of them all ham or turkey salad filled cream puffs. We don't make the puffs, we just have to cut them all in half and fill each one with ham or turkey salad. These take forever. Next Thurs we have an order for 84doz of the beasties and that is half of the size of the original order. This is for one order only and we had four pages of other orders for that same day when I left work Fri. They can add on to those orders until Wed evening. HELP! Also this last week I have had the annual car inspection, registration, thing to deal with. Last week I took said car in to get the emissions and safety checks done. Well just as I left to go to the car check place, snow decided to come down in buckets full so I waited in the waiting room with several "Field and Stream" or Race car magazines to read whilst I waited for the car to be examined. Now I don't know about you, but those magazines are not exactly my cup of tea. I had brought with me a circle it puzzle mag to entertain myself. I waited for at least an hour, only to find that I failed the safety test because my brake lights and turn signal lights were not working. now I know that cars in Utah do not come with turn signals, but mine did and I used them all of the time. I had to get them fixed, which I did on Tues. Then I went to the inspector place to have a new certificate made up stating that the car had been repaired and was now acceptable. I waited an hour during my so called lunch hour) to get the new certificate. The computer server crashed and they couldn't get my new certificate printed. There went my "lunch" hour. Yesterday I finally got back to afore mentioned inspection station to get everything squared away. That is the exact time that it decided to snow. It was a record of 2.5 inches of snow in one hour. The exact hour that brilliant me decided to take the car in. I had planned on going grocery shopping after car was a squared away. It didn't happen, instead I drove home. About 5 min after I got home the snow stopped! I haven't gone grocery shopping in over two weeks so it looks like I will have to go Mon evening after work! I did do 4 batches of laundry Sat besides, unfortunately I did not get the floor swept or mopped. Last Sun the young men brought the sacrament to Ray and the Elder that brought it said "Oh it looks like you have been cleaning". I said " no I need to do some cleaning." I think it looked like I had cleaned because DH had put the dishes in the dishwasher( this is an all day job for him) so that is why the house maybe looked a little better than usual. I was a bit embarrassed, but also a little amused at the poor man (he looks 18, but is a least a returned missionary and one of the many college students couples in the ward) not very tactful. Oh well I do the best I can and I have not poisoned anybody yet. This week will probably be equally exciting.