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Gratitudes 2018, Day 41

After several long months of working with Assessment Delivery (ADel, for short), today marked my first day back with Publishing (Pubs, for short). And for that, I am very grateful… I don’t think there’s a short version for that.

That’s not to say that working with ADel was all trials and tribulations. I kinda liked it there because it was a wide-open room and I was sitting across a table from some other contractors from Pubs instead of staring at the wall. No more random conversations about random stuff at random times, so I’ll miss the laid-back atmosphere and camaraderie with the ADel folks. That said…

  1. Being back in Pubs. I liked (most of) the work I was doing there in the winter and spring and I’m glad to be doing that again.

  2. New computer monitors. When four of us moved over to ADel for the summer, we brought all of our equipment with us: laptops, extra monitors, keyboards, etc. There were a few people who worked in Pubs for a while during that time and those people got their own equipment as well. When they left, it all stayed behind. “This intern had some pretty nice monitors… mine now!”

  3. An empty workspace next to mine. We brought all of our equipment back, there was some left behind by other people… if I remember right, the workspace next to me is currently housing six flat-screen monitors, three keyboards, two laptop docking stations, a few computer mice, plenty of random cords… I wouldn’t call it a computer graveyard. More like a scrap heap.

  4. Desk drawers. I still have Baby Groot on my desk to hold a bunch of pens, but I can throw papers into a drawer instead of awkwardly keeping them tucked partway under my keyboard.

  5. The Balloon of Happiness. During our time in ADel, we had a balloon. All of us Pubs people drew different facial features on it and it became the Balloon of Happiness. Later in the summer, we came into possession of ten more balloons. (Don’t ask me how unless you want to end up being an accomplice…) Many of those balloons ended up with facial features as well: one was scowling, one had an ecstatic grin, there were two cats and a dog and now they’re all in my workspace tucked behind one of my new monitors. Except for the original. I brought that back to ADel. (Given all of the projects that keep getting dropped in their laps, I figured they could use it.)

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Gratitudes 2018, Day 40

  1. Homemade pizza. The Monstrosity!™ Get a crust, put on a bunch of homemade pizza sauce, add cheese, then pepperoni, then sausage, then mushrooms, then more cheese… “Shawn tasted, Shawn approved!”™
  2. Forks. Look, it was a thin-crust pizza crust! Sure, it was nice and crispy, but it was still The Monstrosity!™ Cutting it into eight slices and eating it by hand was a ludicrous proposal. (That’s not to say I didn’t pick it up and take a few bites partway through, but I didn’t want a giant pile of greasy pizza toppings flopping down onto my hand before landing on the plate.)
  3. Plates. A better landing spot for toppings than my hand, the table or on top of the dog. Not that he’d mind, but still…
  4. Paper towels. The toppings stayed on the pizza, but that didn’t keep other stuff for flowing down onto my hand when I picked it up.
  5. Dishwashers. Because cleaning up the plates and forks and knife (Me: “I don’t need a knife!” [Five minutes later] “Thanks for letting me use yours…”) is tedious and I’m grateful that we have a machine to do the work for me.
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Gratitudes 2018, Day 39

  1. Rick and Tasha’s wedding. Yesterday gave us a wonderful and joyous event and I’m super happy for both of them.

  2. The amazing venue (aka, her sister’s family’s backyard). They took an industrial-sized lawnmower… at least that’s what I’m assuming. They had to clear the brush somehow and I didn’t see a gigantic herd of goats anywhere. However they did it, they cleared enough space for a path, cleared the space here for the wedding arch and a bunch of chairs… the stream was already there and the sunshine was a gift from above.

  3. Sunglasses. It could have been yucky and rainy outside, but the sun was out and I was really, really glad I brought my sunglasses from the car. Bringing the car’s A/C unit might have been nice as well, but I’m grateful for the sunglasses.

  4. Bluetooth technology. “Here comes the bride, turn on the music!” Tap on the iPad a few times… a few more times… hold up the iPad and point it toward the audience because the speaker’s not— “BLUETOOTH CONNECTED.” Okay, the speaker’s working fine now.

  5. Three-day weekends. We woke up on Saturday morning, spent a few hours getting ready, left home and got back about 5:45 on Sunday. A few hours here, go to bed, wake up and start the work week anew. Except tomorrow is Labor Day, so we can sleep in a bit longer, then start cleaning and doing laundry and other chores around the house… okay, so it might feel like part of the work week, but at least we get to sleep in.

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Gratitudes 2018, Day 38

It’s 11:00, I just got back to Teresa’s parents’ house after a wedding reception and don’t have the time and/or energy for a full-blown list of gratitudes, so here’s a short road-trip inspired set:

  1. Good gas mileage. Driving for over three hours on half a tank of gas? Yes, please!

  2. Windshields. No bugs in my teeth while I drive? Yes, please!

  3. Small-town gas stations. I can use their bathroom instead of driving another hour to get to a bigger city? Yes, please!

  4. Modern plumbing. I can flush the toilet so that poop doesn’t… I can flush the toilet? Yes, please!

  5. The cashier at the gas station. You know a way to potentially get lots of bottles of Vita Ice for cheap back where we live? Yes, please!

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Gratitudes 2018, Day 37

Before stuffing envelopes last night, I needed to stop at the grocery store for a few things, so this round of gratitudes is courtesy of the Lakeville Cub Foods on Kenwood Trail. (Yes, I included the address for a reason: Lakeville is big enough now that it has three Cub Foods locations.)

  1. Cub Pharmacy. I’ve been buying my meds there since… I’m not even sure. Decades. It was Rainbow Foods when I first started getting my prescriptions there. … Now get off my lawn! … Anyway, I knew they had an order for me to pick up, so that was my first stop in the store.

  2. Yusef, the pharmacist. If I have medication questions or issues about a cold or pretty much anything health-related, he’s a great resource. He’s also fun to talk to when it comes to soccer, family, traveling… I would have liked to talk more when I was there, but I was in a bit of a time crunch.

  3. Pizza fixings. You like how I avoided using “pizza” as a gratitude? But that was the other stuff I needed to get besides meds: crust, cheese, pepperoni and sausage.

  4. Homemade pizza sauce. This gratitude is courtesy of our neighbor, Diana (Gratitude #4.1?). Her parents have a garden (Gratitudes #4.2 and 4.3?), so they gave her some pizza sauce that she then gave to us. It’s a pretty good reason for needing to buy ingredients for making pizza.

  5. Troop 261. It’s my Scout troop in Lakeville and they’ve been doing some fundraising for a trip down to Florida Sea Base, which in this case meant they were bagging groceries at Cub until 8:00 that night. (Thus, the time crunch.)

  6. My loud voice. I brought my groceries to the front, then stepped into a lane where a cashier started ringing me up. I looked toward the exit and saw a few Scouts standing around a table—there weren’t many people in the store, so they didn’t have much to do. As would be expected from me, I said in a not-yelling-but-still-really-loud voice, “COULD ONE OF YOU NICE YOUNG SCOUTS COME OVER HERE AND BAG MY GROCERIES FOR ME?”As would be expected from them, they heard me. They also recognized me, so two Scouts came over to help.

  7. The cashier who rang me up. I’m especially grateful for him because I only bought four items, so he subtly put them in a plastic bag next to him while I was busy talking really loud. After I told him the Scouts were from my troop, he laughed, then took my groceries out of the bag and put them on the conveyor belt so the kids could put my four items in another bag.

  8. Having cash in my wallet. On the table they were standing around, there was an empty ice cream bucket with a hole cut into the lid. (Technically, it wasn’t empty—they’d already received a bunch of donations.) I got out my wallet, opened it and took out what I had: a $20 and a $1. “Which do you think I should give you?” The dad at the table pointed out, “Well, you did have to yell to get their attention…” It was a good point, but I gave them the $20 anyway. Sea Base is a great trip (I went three years ago), but it’s an expensive one—I figured they could use the money.

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Gratitudes 2018, Day 36

After stuffing over 150 newsletters into envelopes this evening, I decided to write a Newsletter Edition of gratitudes tonight:

  1. Microsoft Publisher. “Start with two columns. You want to add a picture? Click this button, move it here, resize it, drag it over here. Want to change articles? Drag the old one to the side of the screen for possible later use, then copy and paste the new one in its place.” Every other month, create the same basic template and start all over again. Suck it, printing press!

  2. Mom’s industrial-sized double-sided color copier. Prints out lots of copies a minute on 11×17 paper so we can do all of the printing and production at home. Suck it, Kinkos!

  3. Mom’s paper folder. There was a time where we made two folds by hand: two sheets of 11×17 paper in half to make an eight-page 8.5×11 newsletter, then fold it in half again (originally into thirds) for stuffing into envelopes. If that first fold wasn’t exact, you could end up with some really crinkled paper. You say there’s a machine that’ll make a perfect first fold for us? Suck it, folding paper by hand! Well, I guess we still have to make the second fold ourselves… dang it!

  4. Self-sealing envelopes. Sure, you could lick over 150 envelopes every other month, but these envelopes have a sticky strip so you can just press the flap down to seal it. Suck it, dry tongues with paper cuts on them!

  5. Our little white plastic basket. Instead of just throwing the envelopes into a gigantic, disorganized pile, we can stack them nicely in this basket, then easily flip through them to make sure we printed the right number and all the envelopes have stamps. Suck it… eh, I think I’m out of things to be hostile towards. I’m just really grateful we have so many tools to make producing and mailing these newsletters faster and easier every year.