ok fine. I finally got it right... NOW ALL YOU GUYS!!! Somebody hire my daughter!!! Please!!!!

hightlite the word CHEMYSTERY

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm the link I thought i linked to didn't get linked to. What did I do wrong? let's try it again. it is www.chemystery.org if it doesn't work. THat's my daughter. She is a biochemist looking for a job, she needs one very badly, please hire her.

Day 1:

It is OFFICIALLY the first day of the rest of my life, LIFE AFTER NEXCOM! I purposefully turned off the radio alarm. (ok Donna, you can come back home now) I purposefully did NOT set the back up wind up old BIG BEN alarm. I wanted to sleep until I woke up. I FORGOT TO CANCEL MY WAKE UP CALL! so at 6:15 on my first day of not working, I woke up at 6:15! Now that is not to say that I actually GOT up, I dozed listening to Katie, Matt, Al and Ann. (only today there was no Matt only MSNBC) I listened to the birds, and when I heard Lola whistle, I got up. For those that MAY be reading this, As if anybody is, Lola is a Douglas Squirrell that comes to my feeder.

I watched Lola for awhile at the squirrell feeder. She (he?) was sitting there nibbling away at the pressed corn log. then I noticed another Lola sitting on the bird feeder eating sunflower seeds. Now I KNOW I have 2 Lola's. I had suspected such, as one is smaller, and not as brightly colored. It is hard to judge when you only see them apart. Kinda like trying to tell identical twins apart, when they aren"t together. Lola snuck up on Lola2, she/he had her back turned. Usually she screams bloody murder when Lola tries to come into the yard. They are very territorial.

2 cups of coffee later, I got dressed, took my meds, gave my shot, ordered my refills, then called my sister at work and nana nanana'd at her because she had to work and I didn't. She laughed.

The dog is out, the cats are fed, I am dressed, feeling fairly good, so here I sit cronicling (sp) the rest of my life. Feeling a bit silly, I decided to wear my gold glittered deelie-bobbers with two stars. Loki is looking at me as if I am some really weird thing. I told him to go catch the balloon.

Donna is still red, so I assume she is still in bed.. WAKE UP DONNA>>>turn blue and talk to your mommie!!! (ICQ) :-)

Well lookie there, I think I figured out how to link...we'll see if it works. Gotta go...Martha is on. catcha later..

OK, Now I'm getting scared. I officially walked away from 37 years of my life. Luncheon, friends, gifts, roasts, and yes, a few tears....JUST a FEW. I wanted my family there, but Donna couldn't make it, Tim never responded, My brother and Sister both had to work, and Bob said eh. SOOOOOOOO....I have some really good digital pictures from the potluck, and a truck load of pretty plants. If I don't kill them. Which I usually do. I got a beautiful Bromiliad from a dear friend of mine in China Lake, she knows my GM and called and had it presented . That started the tears. Damn Linda!!!

So now I have every opportunity to sit and watch CNN when the war starts. Sit and watch it snow when it starts, and not have to worry about driving in it if I dont feel like it. I will miss the people I worked with, I will miss being a mentor, I will miss watching a scared young man start to work, and then watch him grow through the years into the wonderful supervisor he will become. I will miss seeing new generations start, grow, and eventually start new generations themselves. The customers, that I grew up with, the parents of people I went to school with, they were my family too. Big step. Big sigh, big breath, new start.

I made it through the last full day of work with no tears. Whew....cant have my reputation spoiled. The Employees threw a potluck for me which was very nice. lots of cards, small gifts, and tons of balloons. Now most may not think that balloons are a bad thing, but I have been terrified by balloons all of my life. My parents thought it was funny, and even took pictures of me sitting in my sandbox in Hawaii, crying because of a balloon. I never got my kids balloons, and they thought it was funny. Lets tease MOM. we'll chase her with balloons. sheesh. It seems that one of my long term employees remembered when my daughter worked there, and Donna told her that I was afraid of balloons, "If you ever want to get to MOM give her balloons." They did.

There were stories told about me, at various stages in my career, and it was all really nice. Tomorrow the Managers are having a big Luncheon for me, and I expect to be thoroughly roasted. 37 years of anecdotes will, I am sure, be brought up. I asked that it be held at the Cheif's Club just off base, so that more people could attend. But they made it a managers only Lunch. ah well. Headquarters is really hurting right now, they did this Buy out, so that they could reduce the cost of Headquarters, but in order to offer it to one group they had to offer it to the whole eligible pool. It turns out that no one from Headquarters is leaving, but the field is Hemorhaging!!! Ya Know If I was the Admiral, I would take a good hard look at why the field is bailing out, and try to fix the problem. Headquarters works monday through Friday, gets every Holiday off, works 8-5 and goes home. THe FIELD however, works 7 days a week 12-18 hours a day, always is open on holidays, and has to listen to the complaints from the patrons, on products that Headquarters either does or doesnt purchase.

Ah well, I go in tomorrow, turn in my gate pass, give up the key to my new office, and can leave. I will have a full SPRING off!! I can garden when the sunshines, not hope that the sun will shine when I am off to garden. (I live North of Seattle. LOTS of rain) Oh MY!!!! I will have a real CHRISTMAS OFF!!!!! whoo-hooo!!!! It is the little things in life that will make me happy now.

I was given a few books today about creating web pages, so watch for me in the future. Probably the far future. I want a really cool site with lots of interesting features, linking my blog to it too. DOnt have the faintest idea where to start, but I will get there. With all of my hobbies, and my work with the PLAYHOUSE, I should have lots of good links. Birds, photography, geology, gardening, cooking, reading, astronomy, natural science, hiking, camping, roaming. the list goes on and on and on!

I have the Employee of the Year award ceremony tomorrow, and it is early, so I had better get my self to bed early also. Dont want to be late on my last day of work.

I'm not sure what type of blog I want here, just brain dumps, or a real log. Do I want to get into emotions and feelings for the world to see? Do I want to write this just for me, or with the thought that others will be reading it also. Although I don't know how anyone but Chemystery would even know about it. Hrmmmmmm....we'll see how this works out. Perhaps I will do both.

I can't believe that I only have 1 1/2 real days of work left. As I told my daughter I have NEVER been unemployed and NOT pregnant and pukey! This is going to really be an eye-opener for me. I have all kinds of people asking me what I am planning to do with my time....lets see...I have a three bedroom home with a big garage full of crap that I have been collecting and carting around all over the world for 37 years. It's time to go through it and PITCH!!! (Fair warning Children, if there is anything that you REALLY want, you better tell me now!!) So room by room, I anticipate getting everything in order. No excess furniture, no closets full of crap, New paint, clean windows, and maybe even re-arrange the room functions. Then there are the crafts that I have, in boxes, closets, dressers etc. I intend to get my projects finished, and organize the extra pieces. I have two quilts to finish, One of which was started by my Mother when she was 9 years old. That would have been in 1931! It WILL be finished!! I also have three afghans to finish, one of which was started by my mother, added to by my daughter, and hopefully be finished by me. (as you can tell, finishing projects does NOT run in our family!)

When that is all done, I am going to get the baseboards and transition strips installed on my new floor, paint the rest of the trim on the outside of the house.(yep, another unfinished project) get the yard in order, buy my wish list from Amazon.com, and read, plant a garden, can the results, and with all my SPARE time, .......

Nope, won't be bored for a while...

Oh yeah, and I want to take up scrapbooking. (another project to leave undone?) I would like to make a scrapbook for both Donna and Tim. something that when I am gone, they will have to show a record of their life and their history. I decided this after my Father died, and my sister and I got to talking, and I discovered that even though she and I lived through the very same experiences, we have TOTALLY different memories of the same events. I found that odd, and there is no one to ask who is right. So if I make this scrapbook, and detail the event and what they meant to ME, maybe my Children will have some sense of continuity with their own memories. Who knows, I may get dementia and forget everything.

Well, I went in today and asked My General Mgr, if I could take a few days off before I retire, as I am not contributing anything, and she said oh gosh, everybody else is off too. Well then. Since the main reason I wanted off was also off, I guess i'll work. :-) I had a really good day today. We talked about Inventory numbers, and planning etc. I felt NEEDED! Dont worry, it'll all change when the SM comes back. :-( I guess she is out sick. Hmmm could the place be getting to her already? one could always hope!!!!

I dont believe this, my 35 year old daughter, the one that i so proudly talked about in the blog we cant find, just called me a BITCH just because i am eating a piece of chocolate decadence cake with ice cold milk. Now wouldnt you think she would respect me more than that?

blogger.com

yay!! I can now document the first day of the rest of my life, and the second day, and the third, and so on and so on, and so on.

Ok so I totally Hate the name, but at least we can get it to work. sO HOW DO i CHANGE THE NAME HERE? oops caps on.
someone else has brain spillage, and there must be a thousand donnasmoms. so.............

While I think about this, I should go pop the left over Tamale Pie in the oven for Dinner before my blood glucose drops out

see mom...it works.

ok mom. lets see if this works for you.