At the start of a new year, I like
looking back over the previous one and thinking about the things that happened
that stand out in my mind. This past year started out in some difficulty for us
because Vladi was out of work and my hours were somewhat unstable, but in
April, Vladi started working for a company called Morrow Meadows and I took on
the position of lead scan coordinator when my boss Tracy was transferred to
Carpinteria. Since then, our income has been nice and steady and we've been
able to start thinking about getting some of our credit debt paid off. I'm
hoping that 2013 will be the year when we can really make some progress with
that (as long as Vladi keeps working and Albertson's stays in business.) Morrow
Meadows has been such a relief after the company that Vladi worked for just
prior to them because they do things properly and they allow overtime. Even
though having Vladi working so many Saturdays is not ideal, it has helped our
finances. I just hope that we don't end up owing big taxes because of how much
we've made this year.
Taking over the lead scan position has
had it's ups and downs. I like that I don't have to worry about getting my
hours cut (too much) and that I can do things my way, but I do miss the
camraderie that Tracy
provided. Lisa and I like each other very much and we work well together but
neither of us is the "talker" that Tracy was. She has one of those bigger than
life personalities that draws everyone to her and allows everyone to tell her
all their news so that she always had a lot to talk about. We miss that. I feel
like I'm doing okay in the position but I know that I'm still not, and probably
will never be as good at it as Tracy.
I think that I sometimes don't realize the importance of certain aspects of the
job and possibly have some weak areas in my execution of it. But hopefully I
will learn without too many disasters occurring to teach me. I received a
"Muscolino" audit a few months ago. This is an audit by an outside
company that comes in and tests 5000 items throughout the store for accuracy.
In all the Years Tracy
has been doing scan, she's never gotten this audit--but 6 months after I take
over the job, I get hit. Just my luck! Our company considerers a 99.5% a
passing grade. I think I ended up with a 99.1 or something like that. Anyway,
there were some definite problems to be addressed in our store and I've been
trying to come up with solutions to them, but I think that we are expected to
do way more than we can with the hours they give us. Anyway, all in all, I'm
really glad that Randy (my store manager) trusted me to take the position.
Other than work, this year had some other
great highlights. Lael's wedding in June was a wonderful event and a wonderful
opportunity for Vladi, me, Christy and Ben to give back some of the love that
the Heatons showered on us for my wedding. I was SO proud of my kids for the
way they pitched in to help in the preparations for the big day. The wedding
itself was magical. Tom & Lael held it in a campground where the sunlight
filtering through the trees as the sun went down was just the perfect effect to
shine on the ceremony. And for the reception, the crew worked hard to string
twinkle lights through the huge oak tree positioned over the dance floor constructed
by Richard. Much love and hard work went into making the day perfect for these
two great young people. And I think we all had a blast. I know I did.
We also went to Olya and Adam's wedding
in October. Although it was a completely different type of wedding, it was also
a thoroughly joyous experience. It was wonderful to see how each of these
couples made their special day very much their own.
Vladi and I made the trip to Olya's
wedding our vacation for the year. We both took a week off work and planned a nice
little trip for ourselves, culminating in attending the wedding. We arranged it
so that we had a couple of days all to ourselves on the way up. We stopped in Pismo Beach
one day, and Monterey
the next. Both towns are lovely and I would like to do that again sometime and
maybe even spend a little longer. We got to visit the Monterey Aquarium, which
is awesome and enjoyed some great food in the local restaurants. I highly
recommend the clam chowder in Pismo
Beach! Yum--mmy!
Once we got to San Francisco, we picked Ben up from the
airport and went to the house that we rented. When I was trying to make
reservations for our stay in SF, I was shocked by the high prices for the hotel
rooms. Because we were going to have to rent 2 rooms for 3 nights, and it happened
to be a weekend when both major San
Francisco sports franchises were playing important
games, the cost was spiraling out of my price range and the availability was
decreasing by the day. Olya was giving us some helpful suggestions and she told
us about a website called airbnb that some of her friends had used with good
results. What they offer is private parties who have homes or rooms to rent out
in whatever area you wish to stay. Well, I went on the website and was very
pleased and excited to find reasonable prices and quite a few choices. We ended
up renting a 3 bedroom home for our 3 day stay from a very nice young man for
what I considered a very fair price.
Christy took the train up from home and
joined us that Friday night. We picked her up from the train station at about
11:00 pm and went back to the house to play our first of several games of
"Settlers of Catan" which Ben dominated for the whole weekend. One of
my favorite things about this whole trip was getting to spend two restful, fun
days with my kids. We had one memorable conversation in an interesting kind of
fast food Mediterranean restaurant. We learned something new about each other.
We had a very enjoyable weekend in San Francisco and attended
the wedding on Sunday. It was held on a hotel balcony which overlooked the San Francisco Bay and the Bay bridge. We were treated
to a spectacular view of the sunset as Adam and Olya said their beautiful vows
to each other and became husband and wife. The toasts that were spoken to Olya
and Adam at the reception were touching and heartfelt as well as eye opening
for those of us who don't know them in the different areas of their lives. They
are both really impressive and accomplished young people. And of course, my
husband couldn't be more proud of his baby girl.
Another thing I remember from this year
was celebrating my friend Janeen's birthday in May. It is always important to
Janeen to spend time with her family and friends, especially on her birthday,
and we wanted to think of something fun to spend the day doing. So we went to
the Ventura Harbor and walked around the cool little
shops, rented paddle-boats, ate ice cream, and went to a seafood place for
dinner. Toward the end of the day, we were trying to think of something to do
to end the day well. We had seen an advertisement for a comedy club at the Ventura Harbor. Janeen mentioned that she
thought that sounded like fun. Two things are unusual about that. I don't think
any of us had ever been to a comedy club before--and Janeen doesn't usually
speak up about what she wants to do. But since it was HER birthday, we really
wanted to do what she wanted. So we went to the comedy club. AND WE HAD SO MUCH
FUN! So much that of all the birthdays we celebrated last year, that's the only
one I really remember!
Just a couple of other things. . .
Hurricane Sandy
directly affected one of my cousins at the end of Oct./beginning of November.
He lives in East Rockaway, which has been in several news articles that I've
read, cited as being one of the areas hardest hit by this storm. My cousin was
able to post pictures of his personal experience of this traumatic event on
facebook and it brought the whole news story to a much more personal level for
me. For this and other reasons, I really like facebook and the ability it has
afforded me to be a small part of the lives of family members that are
physically far away. I wanted very much to do something to help my cousin and
it warmed my heart when he posted some of the things other family members were
doing to send love and support and encouragement to those who had to deal with
the destruction of their homes and possessions. Because we've had steady work
this year, we were able to send a little love and support as well and it made
me feel so good!
Because of THAT occurring when it did,
and also because I've been recording and watching Ellen this season (and truly
I don't know how anyone can watch that show and not love her for all she does
to help people) it helped me find a little of the Christmas Spirit that I've
been struggling to get back over the last few years. Sometime in the beginning
of December, I was talking to my friend Stephanie at work and she asked me if I
was ready for Christmas. I said something like, "I don't like Christmas
anymore. It just stresses me out." And my very wise friend said some
things that I guess I was ready to hear. She told me that she had felt that way
at one point, too, but she decided that she was just going to make Christmas
her own and do the things she enjoyed. She advised me to let go of the
expectations, and remember the things that I used to love about it. Then do
what I could and don't worry about the rest.
Then, a couple of days later, she came to
work with a big Christmas bag, which she handed me and said, "This is a 12
Days of Christmas bag. There is one little gift to open for each day until
Christmas. I hope this helps you get your Christmas Spirit back." I was so
touched, I almost cried. I had a lot of fun opening the little gifts each day.
It didn't even matter what they were. It meant a lot to me that she was
thoughtful enough to do that.
One more thing happened on the way to
Christmas. My daughter was in a dance recital at school. All the dance classes
performed a dance by way of their final for the semester. My beautiful daughter
shines bright when she dances, because she loves to dance and she is a joy to
watch. So I thoroughly enjoyed the recital. Afterward, I took her to dinner and
we talked.
She expressed to me that it made her sad
that I didn't really want to do any of the things we used to do for Christmas.
It wasn't about the presents. It was more about the traditions. There was a
time when I actually put up lights on the outside of the house. I had a long
list of people I sent Christmas cards to. I decorated. And we baked cookies.
Christy expressed concern that we really didn't have any traditions anymore and
she worried that when she has kids, I won't participate in any of that.
Well, first I reassured her that I was
working on getting my Christmas Spirit back. And that I missed it, too. She was
happy to hear that. And she was especially happy when I announced a couple of
days later that I was going shopping for ingredients for Christmas cookies.
She and I had a wonderful time baking
this year, and I hope that it is the start of a new tradition for us. We are
going to make Christmas our own.
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