Job Progress Report 5/10

Today is May 10th and I'm 46 days into my resignation and things are looking up in the jobs department at Me.Inc.:

• I got a haircut
• I've brushed up my resume
• Updated my LinkedIn profile to include my notary commission as self employment
• Joined monster, careerbuilder, branded.me
• Multiple recruiters are in play 
• Hiring managers have requested my resume
• Recruiters are emailing/calling

I've tried to keep an open mind about what skills I have and how they can be applied to roles other than mortgage loan post closing. With that being said, I developed an administrative assistant resume with a role in mind with a large local employer. Also, I was contacted about a reports analyst job at a medical insurance company (which is attractive to me because everybody needs medical insurance but not everyone is in the position to obtain a home loan), so I'm brushing up on my Excel skills.

And even while I was typing up this blog post, I got a call from another recruiter asking me if I wanted to interview for a Correspondent Purchasing position. Now I understand why that company is the way it is if they are contacting people to interview for roles they need to fill with zero experience, hiring them at a lower salary because of that fact, and then when they go through their trial by fire and fail, bloop, they get canned and the role becomes open again shortly. I feel like I dodged a bullet.

It's also 8 days from my departure date to be with my family for my uncle's memorial. A decidedly somber event. I think we all agree that his passing was sad but also blessing having witnessed him living with Alzheimer's disease and watching his slow demise. 

W/e 03/20/16

My head is in a bunch of different places this Sunday morning.

I've received papers in the mail to execute in order to releave my obligation to the timeshare condo I bought and don't choose to maintain anymore. That's good news. It's value went from the high of $7k which was what I paid in 1999 down to today's assessor's value of $502. It's value is so low now, the county doesn't even bother to send the tax bill anymore.

I'm contemplating whether or not I want to stay at my job. I've gained ReverseVision, HECM, FHA, Ginnie Mae and advanced MS Excel experience in the seven months since I've started. There was a sobering statistic disclosed at the last Operations town hall which stated sadly only 33 percent of staff were there for over one year. An audible gasp came from the audience. Being #1 comes at a cost having to deal with the sheer volume which makes it hard to attract and retain employees, not to mention favoritism. So between now and June will be the time for me to either figure out where I fit in or find a new job. And the latter is looking more attractive. The stress is so palpable, my eyelids twitch just thinking about the place and I hate that.

So I'm really looking forward to the week's vacation I put in for even though it has it's own level of stress and sorrow built in. In 58 days, I'll be in New York with my family for Uncle Frank's memorial.

Last weekend, I bought supplies to build another two raised planting beds on my patio. I almost killed the tomato plants I bought drying them out without watering them for a week. they seem to come back to life after being drenched on Friday and Saturday. I have more coming up where they the cherry tomato plants were last year, now the where the peas are planted.

It's June!

Last year, I was fully expecting that now I'd be recovering from my third major surgery battling Crohn's disease, but the medication the GI doctor prescribed has helped and gave me a tool to use when I'm feeling bad. After having a colonoscopy and finding out that the pain I was experiencing was from an ulcer instead of advanced Crohn's, I decided that it's probably a better idea for me to focus on doing things that make me feel well, eating well and de-stressing my life.

So part of that de-stressing regime has been looking for a job closer to home. I like driving, but having to drive in LA traffic to and from work four days a week (Monday's I work remotely from Brea) is a time waster and it's frustrating when it doesn't keep moving. I live 42 miles from work. In no traffic, it takes me 35 minutes to get to work. But in traffic, it can take anywhere from 1-2 hours to get to work. And, yes, I've tried rideshare commuting, but to be honest, it doesn't make that much difference in LA traffic. The solution is working closer to home. Immediately when I started to look for a new job, there were two different MERS positions that were posted and I got a telephone interview for the one I applied to, but found out that they couldn't meet my salary requirements. So I'm still looking.

Once the senior on my team came back to work after she had recovered from surgery, I scheduled my two week vacation. Last year, for vacation, I flew to DC and stayed with my aunt in VA and while my uncle was in a nursing home recovering from a heart attack. I drove up to Massachusetts and New York to meet up with family among other thing. I accumulated a lot of PTO between then and May planning on that LOA, but I didn't need it, so I had to take a vacation.

So instead of going back to the East coast this year, I'm having a stay-cation for the summer of 2015. The first week, I'm proud to say I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it felt good. The second week, I'm attacking the last of the floor project that was so rudely interrupted by December's broken wrist that I got from falling at work. Oh, and by the way, that infatuation for my therapist went absolutely no where. Which I'm kind of glad about because the new normal after menopause has not been any fun either. So I'm moving furniture and prepping the floor tomorrow.

Vacation Countdown

Vacation Countdown

Use it or lose it

One of the perks of being a 4 year survivor... err someone with tenure at work is that I accumulate vacation time quickly. Which leads to the next question, "Where am I going to go for vacation this year?"

Last year, I traveled to Virginia to visit with my aunt and uncle. It seemed as though I came too soon because:

1) I don't call 40 degree weather a suitable temp during any vacation for me. I was sequestered to the house until it hit at least 50 degrees. I am no snow bunny.

2) Then come to find out that the major annual event for Winchester, "The Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival" is near the end of the month and not at the beginning when I was there.

But no matter. I had fun anyway.

So now I have about a two week period to figure out where to go.

My 2013 Vacation in Virginia

If you asked me ten years ago where I wanted to go on vacation, Virginia probably would not have been on my mind. My aunt and uncle live here though in the Shenandoah River Valley and they were always telling to me come and visit them so here I am. I flew in on Saturday and coming from California, that took the better part of the first day. I woke up at 4AM to get to the airport by 5AM to get a the plane by 6:30AM for a flight at 7AM. I didn't want to drive to the airport, so a friend from work took me to LAX. In the dark. On a Saturday morning when she could have been sleeping. That's what friends are for. The plane experienced turbulence over Illinois and near where I landed at Dulles. It made my stomach a little queasy. After almost six hours on the plane, the landing at Dulles was easy. The airport is modern and has a high speed shuttle to take you from the gates to the terminal. Once your bags are collected at the luggage carousel, all you have to remember is who you rented your car from and find where to stand on the curb to catch the shuttle bus to where the rental car terminal is. Rent your car, find it in their parking lot, and you're off!

Driving from the airport to Winchester took maybe 40 minutes? I had to stop and get something to drink because I was thirsty from the long flight.

So I got in on Saturday and they fed me. I got up on Easter Sunday and they fed me. And we had an early dinner of ham, three veggies and tea. I was so full... These seniors eat way too much way too often. They are so sweet and so retired. They are in their 80's and don't volunteer much anymore. Tressa makes things to sell at the craft fairs around town. She handed me the instructions sheet for Star Pot Mat. Guess what I know how to make now?

STAR POT MAT

Three skeins of yarn, 4 ply worsened weight.
variegated (4 rounds)
white (3 rounds)
Your choice of solid color (3 rounds)

Directions:
Using variegated colored yarn:
Chain 8, slst, chain 2
Round 1 - dc 15 times into ring, slst
Round 2 - *chain 21, skip one st on ring and join in next st of ring. Repeat from * 8 times. Slst.
Round 3 - 10 sc, then * 3 sc in next stitch, 20 sc, 3 sc in next stitch. Repeat from * 7 times, 10 sc.
Round 4 - Continue to sc and when you reach a star point, 3 sc in same st.
Round 5 - Continue to sc and when you reach a star point, 3 sc in same st.
Round 6 - Continue to sc, and when you reach a star point, 3 sc in same st. End variegated colored yarn.
Round 7 - Yarn on white. Continue to sc and when you reach a star point, 3 sc in same st.
Round 8 - Continue to sc, and when you reach a star point, 3 sc in same st.
Round 9 - Continue to sc, and when you reach a star point  3 sc in same st. End white yarn. Shape work to look like an 8 point star
Round 10 - Yarn on solid color, then  * 7 stitches from point of star then sc, and when you reach a star point  3 sc in same st. Sc in next 7 st, sc [repeat from * seven times]. Slst onto first solid color st.
Round 11 - sc in each st, and when you reach a star point, 3 sc in same st.
Round 12 - sc in each st, and when you reach a star point, 3 sc in same st. End solid colored yarn.

I was feeling a little stir crazy on Easter Sunday night with the rainy and cold weather, and not knowing where I was going, I drove around until I found a grocery store that was open (Food Lion) and picked up some things. I also bought two VA scratchers at $5 a piece and won $10. Made my money back.

On 04/01, I went to the visitor's center: http://www.visitwinchesterva.com/visitor-info/visitor-center

I went to Stonewall Jackson's home and took the docent led tour with my uncle. Tressa stayed in the car knitting because she didn't feel like negotiating all those steps. I bought a $10 ticket and then later found out they were across the driveway from the visitor's center.

http://www.winchesterhistory.org/society_museums.htm

After that, we decided to take a drive out of town, but before doing so, because by then it was noon, we stopped for lunch and ate at Perkins. I found the food to be very much like Coco's. They offer a 2 or 3 item lunch special. I had the chicken noodle soup and lemon meringue pie, and tressa and frank split a 3 item special - frank had the tuna melt and tressa had the loaded potato soup and split her salad with frank. The bill for three people was less than $20.

Then I drove with them over to the arboretum. They had an herb garden I walked through that looked pretty shabby right after the end of winter. I picked a few leaves of sage and lavender and put them in my pocket. They also have a driving tour of the property which we took. Afterwards, my guts were so shaken, I had to stop the car again and parked across from the herb garden in order to walk to the office building to where the restrooms was. It was a good thing they were there. OK, then we tooled on down the road to Milltown, but the mill building there was closed for renovation. I quickly ran around the building and took some pictures and got back into the car because it was a cold, blustery day.

We drive through Milltown, which is actually older than Winchester and not much of a town at all, and then went back to the house. That was outing for the day. And then we ate again. And I made another star pot mat. I'm on my third one now.

Photos I'm proud to say I've taken

I can't say that I'm any sort of photographer or even someone that has taken classes for it, but because I have an artistic eye and understand a little bit about symmetry, once in a while without trying all that hard, I take some pretty awesome photos, if I do say so myself. So here's a few for your enjoyment.

This is the lighthouse located in St. Augustine, Florida. This photo was taken in September, 2007, before I found the energy and the strength to climb to the top.

And this is what the view was like after climbing to the top of the lighthouse. This is a photo of an inter-coastal waterway which sometimes runs on the east side of the state. In the background is Anastasia State Park.

This is the home of FDR in Hyde Park, New York, and this photo was taken in October, 2011. I was staying in Fishkill and driving up to Red Hook almost daily for genealogy research before my mother's funeral and I wanted to do something touristy to lighten my mood. This national park was on the way.

On a rainy day, once on a guided tour and inside the home, after about 20 minutes, it became so uncomfortable for me to be there because there was no air circulating due to preservation efforts that I began hyperventilating (but especially after hearing the script from the docent which emphasized the fact that this was his mother's home before it became his and then the realization hit me for an ever so brief moment that my mother has nothing of significance for me to inherit, among other things about my mother that hit my consciousness all at once...) and that this was an extremely rare time when I realized my anxiety was kicking in, so I had to excuse myself from the tour in order to catch my breathe. I stepped outside, found my way to a stone bench outside the front door and then to a second bench across the driveway. It started to sprinkle and I quickly took this photo before making my way back to the visitor's center.

Chicago - bite me

I went to Chicago on vacation to do some genealogy work, but what I got instead was to experience a mini-Los Angeles. Mind boggling parking, hours worth of traffic going to and from the city and a mass transit system I just couldn't really grasp in the four short days I was there.

I flew in on Wednesday to O'Hare from Long Beach. I stayed miles from the city, in a suburb called Arlington Heights in a nice business class hotel thanks getting getting a sweet deal from hotels.com. I rented a car from Hertz because it appeared as though that's what I needed to do to get around. I think the next time if I ever go there again, I will get a hotel near a train station, take the hotel shuttle or a cab from from the airport to the hotel and then hoof it after taking the train to downtown. I mean, its about the only way to avoid the city's horrible parking/ traffic situation.

On the night I landed in town, I rushed over to the hotel and checked in and then drove over to the Niles Public Library in order to attend a book lecture on "Oldest Chicago". I love trivia and I thought this would be a nice introduction to the city. I bought a book and the author signed it for me. Nice.

The publisher of the book, Lake Claremont Press, is located in Chicago and also has published other local interest books like for graveyards, history of city, and how to manage genealogy searches. I'm not sure how helpful the first two might be, but I'm thinking about picking up a copy of the third one.

 I ate dinner at Johnnie's down the street from my hotel. They are known for the Italian sandwiches there. I had a one Italian with sweet (grilled green bell) peppers and then I got to slather on as much mustard as I liked. I also ordered a Pepsi. The sandwich was big enough to where you ordering fries would be kind of like a waste of time. It's unique, it's good, and they don't really sell them in California. It's kind of like a roast beef sandwich but different.

The next day, I went to the Sulzer Regional Library and they were really nice about giving me a guest library card for my genealogy research. They didn't even ask to see my drivers license, or if they did, I don't remember.

Then I tried driving into town to find parking so I could do some touristy things, but to no avail. Lots of street closures and I guess there is this weird underground parking which kind of freaked me out. So I ended up driving through town twice, then sick of the bad traffic I headed back to the hotel. Three hours later...

I ate dinner at Mitsuwa at the food court establishment called "MAMA House". It's Korean food and I got the BulGoKI. It was tasty and filling.

Friday, I ate lunch with some my credit union co-workers in the Chicago office and met all of the people I've been emailing for a while now. I discussed my genealogy research with a few of the managers. I dropped an entire plate of take-out Italian food on one of the managers floors. The styrofoam just didn't hold up. I scooped it all up and then threw it in the trash and went and got a few things and move back into the office.

One of the managers volunteered his service to take a picture of a gravestone for me if and when I can find it- HAHA. I honestly do not think he comprehends what he's volunteered himself for. If there's an online index somewhere, I'm going to find it.

After that, I went to another book store wanting to see if the had more books on genealogy or Chicago. At Half Price Books, I did, however, find two Lion Brand Yarn books, one on making socks and the other on making hats, so those were cool finds.

I slept like shit the entire time I was on +2 hours. The room was quiet and the bed was fine, it was the time change I couldn't get used to. So normally I get up at 5AM weekdays. My body was telling me to wake up at 3:30AM all week. So I'd stay up until I fell back asleep and then when I woke up again, by that time, I missed the continental breakfast offered by hotel. Nice, huh? I participated one morning. Memo: don't eat banana nut muffins on vacation. I did not feel good after consuming those. I'm sure they were fine for anyone else but me... they were probably made with dairy in the recipe.

On Saturday morning, I got ready, packed up and checked out of the hotel. No trip to the mid-west would be complete without a stop at While Castle so I drove to Palatine to eat a #1 (4 burgers just like the ones you buy at the grocery store, a french fries and a drink) on the way to go outlet shopping at Huntley Premium Outlet on I90 off of ILL Route 47 before my plane flight going home. My educated guess would be that center is 40% full of tenants. The Van Heusen store is huge compared to the one I shop at at The Citadel in Commerce.

After I could shop no more because my luggage was full, I drove back to O'Hare giving myself three hours before my departure time to deal with the bad traffic around the airport on Saturday, having to turn in my rental car and getting shuttled back to the airport, and the TSA lines which I generally loathe. It was nice to find out that the lines are not particularly long and they make an effort to keep them moving.

I had a Crohn's attack on the flight which was both humiliating and horrifying at the same time and since I check my baggage, I didn't have with me what I needed to deal with it. Since I had extra time in the terminal after turning on the rental car, I should of went to the restroom immediately before getting on the plane because I hate to use those airplane toilets. I went once when I got into the terminal after going through the security line, but then I walked the terminal and then found a seat to catnap until it was time to board the plane. What a nightmare.

After I got home, I found out that my pink hard-sided suitcase was opened and searched by the TSA because they left me a flyer letting me know they did so. Thanks, but next time you go and search my bags, fucking close the shampoo and conditioner bottles please.

Monday, I went over to my ex-mother in-laws house and she started to show me all of these old photos of her family and I just couldn't stand to see them in disorganized piles any longer, so I suggested that we go to Wal-Mart and pick-up some scrap booking supplies so they can be preserved and not handled anymore. I mean, some of the photos were over 100 years old! $75 and about 6 hours later, one book is just about done. I sorted the photos as best I could and Linda arranged them on the sheet and tacked the corners down. We have another session planned for this Sunday to do the other book.

Vacation day 14, October 21st

It's Friday and I'm going to have a full day at DisneyWorld today. I'm getting better situated with what attractions are where finally by using this map:

At 7AM, I was toying with the idea of going off site for breakfast, but I really don't want to hop into my car until it's time to go tomorrow morning.

I ended up skipping breakfast and buying a lunch of fried shrimp with fries and a large light lemonade. Then I made my way over to the other side of Epcot.

On the schedule today, The Orchestra ( http://www.theorchestra.net/ ) starring former members of ELO (Parthenon Huxley [in a black "former member" tee-shirt on guitar and Mik Kaminski on violin) were performing as a part of the "Eat to the Beat" series at the American... They played for exactly 30 minutes.

Set List:

Don't bring me down
Can't get it out of my head
Tightrope
Hold on tight
Telephone Line
Do Ya

Seeing that performance pretty much was the 'cherry on top' to my entire trip.

Vacation day 13, October 20th

Yeah, I'm on my way to Disneyworld today. Now my real vacation begins.

Stewart International Airport doesn't seem very international at all and it's actually very quiet at 7AM in the morning. I had no idea what the traffic would be like or how busy the airport would be. I just got up and got ready, packed up my things and got on the road as quick as I could. Stewart Airport is 17 miles from where I was staying in Fishkill. Of course, it was raining almost all the way there. I'm done with the NY rain.

O.K., the drop off for the Hertz rental I've had for he past 13 days is weird at the airport. The way this is set-up is one of the reasons why it feels like it's not an actual international airport but more of a regional one. It's on your honor. Shocking, huh. I know I was. You find a marked space to park your car and then get your stuff out and mark the envelope with the date and time you brought it back and the mileage and the gas tank reading, too. Then you lock the car taking the keys and your rental paperwork with you and walk into the terminal with your stuff to the Hertz counter where there is no one manning the thing at 7AM. All that they have there is an early drop-off box that tells you to put your paper work and your keys in the box. Done.

Since I was able to print out my tickets last night and check in online, I didn't have to do that at the counter. So now I had to go find the TSA line. And typically, I'm looking for this long line of bleary eyed people and grumbly TSA folk barking orders to get you though as fast as possible. But again, at 7AM, no line. I went through by myself with no one before me or after me. I was thinking that maybe I'm in some Twilight Zone or the wrong airport, but nope. I found my gate and sat there until it was time to board.

Seat 12F was a much better choice than 9A which was designed not to recline. So everyone got onto the plane and we waited. And we waited. And then the captain announced that his maps were expired and he was waiting for the new ones and I guess there was a printer problem on top of it. We waited on the tarmac for an hour and a half. So our 3 hour flight which was supposed to land at 11-something AM went to 1-something.

Orlando Airport is huge. On the level where you leave the gate area but before you get on the tram, it looks like a freakin' mall. There was even an ad that said they hold church serves there.  Thrifty rent-a-car held my car reservation for me knowing my flight was delayed. That was nice. They do not have cars with GPS. That was not so nice. And the map that they give you is crap.

So I used the navigation on my cellphone to get to the Dolphin Resort.

This place is huge. They give you a map at the front desk when you check in order to navigate the place. All I know is after I got to my room and settled in a little, my stomach was growling. I had toast this morning for breakfast, and water and some blue terra chips on the plane.

I went down to the first floor and found a small buffet/store called Picabu which has a lot of bird chirps and elephant sounds on a loop to greet you as you walk in.

I ate the chicken dinner, rice and greens. It was about the only thing on their menu that didn't have dairy in it.

I still have 2 and a half hours before the park closes and that's right before the Illusions Fireworks show.
*****************************
O.K., so I was able to pick up my prepaid two day park hopper ticket using my voucher, walk around a bit, find the nearest women's restroom from my entrance gate with a line, and then I walked to the center of the park where the sphere is to go on a ride called "Spaceship Earth". How do I explain this attraction... It's states that through time, communication through the written word and then on computers has been the driving force that is propelling us towards our future. It's depicted through stages, some with animetronics and some not so much. At the end, it inserts a photo of your disembodied head into a future based cartoon based upon a brief questionnaire of your likes and dislikes. And then after the ride was over, I wondered to the pin station and bought an officially licensed Epcot pin.

People start to sit down an hour before the fireworks. Yep, that's DisneyWorld for ya. It occurrs at the California park, too.

I'm falling asleep here at the keyboard. It's time for me to sleep. The park opens at 9AM tomorrow. Woohoo!

Vacation day 5, October 12th

It's Wednesday and I decided it's laundry day. I found the laundry room on the first floor of the Homestead Suites where I'm staying, but with the drier fee of $2 alone, I think I'll take my chances washing elsewhere. As I was getting ready to leave, I opened up the yellow pages I found in the top drawer of my kitchen and located a few in my area. The closest one travel wench couldn't find on Commonwealth. But I remembered from reading, that there were three in Newburgh, so I traveled over the Hudson not exactly knowing where I was going but with the goal of finding a laundrymat. I somehow made my way to Broadway. I found Snow White Laundrymat, but it was rusty, old, and had no vending machines for soap and dryer sheets. After my quick audit, I hopped back into my car and went to the next one. I found Newburgh Laundry World off of he corner of Fullerton and Broadway. *ting* tha will do. It was huge and had everything I needed complete with a Spanish speaking attendant. It was $2.50 to wash in the small commercial front loading machine. They had no top loaders. To dry, it was .25 cents for 8 minutes. I put in 4 quarters and waited. Once all of the folding was done, I decided to drive to the end of Broadway straight into the Hudson. Not really, but as I went towards the river, I found another historic marker and this one was about General George Washington. My son is related to him. Fancy. I have to check that out, but first I have to get back to the hotel for lunch. And then I never sent back. Yet. Here's the link to what I found on my excursion: http://www.nysparks.com/historic-sites/17/details.aspx

Vacation day 4, October 11th

Tuesday, October 11th. This was a lazy travel day as I had two more hours to get to my destination in Fishkill, NY I checked out of the Marriott in Waterbury and on my way out of town I tried to get lost, but Travel Wench would not allow me to do so. I drove toward the bell, but I think my hearing was off because instead I found a large gothic looking church.I crossed a river and then was on my way again. I realized I did not pack my transfer cable for my camera by this time after taking pictures of and around city hall. There was a traffic jam due to road work in Connecticut on my way into New York. I had to laugh. It was Tuesday afternoon. Is this someone's way of telling me I still have work to do? I don't know. I decided on contacting the city historian to get the details on the headstones in the park. I wasn't expecting a reply with all of the budget cuts, but I got one and she even gave me a clue as to where to look further. After passing the large green "Welcome to New York" sign along Interstate 84W, it was smooth sailing down the road. I pulled over at the first rest stop I could find for a drink and I found this sign:

After I checked into my hotel room a rested for awhile and decided I needed provisions for my stay. I drove myself to the 24/7 Super Walmart on the other side of the highway. I ended up spending about $100. So a little over $10 a day on 2-3 meals a day.

Shopping list:
English breakfast tea (because the hotel only serves coffee)
ginger ale, 2 liter
orange juice, half gallon
silk soy milk, vanilla flavored half gallon
lenders bagels
rye bread
turkey lunch meat
frozen chicken strips
4 bell peppers
one red onion
4 bananas
6 roma tomatos
tub of Best Life spread
morton salt & pepper
tiny bottle of musard
a dozen eggs
two boxes of Oscar Meyer cooked bacon
a steam bag of peas
a steam bag of broccoli
sugar free jello six pack
kettle pop corn bag
pringles original
transfer cable

Vacation day 3, October 10th

It's Columbus Day! Yeah!

I'm up early again. I decided to partake in the free breakfast that's offered at this hotel. It's served in the breakfast room across the hall from the check-in counter.

It's a meatless breakfast. You can make your own waffles, they have biscuits and gravy, bagels, danish, yogurt and fruit cups, oatmeal, two choices of cold cereal and 2%, coffee, tea and juice. I was able to pull together a meal of a couple pieces of wheat toast with spread and apple jelly, a fruit cup and to drink a cup of coffee with three sugars, no creamer and a half a cup of orange juice.

I grabbed an apple for the road.I also picked up a hotel directory and a brochure for the Mohegan Sun Indian Casino in the lobby on the way up to my room.

So the goal today was get to Waterbury, CT, because, hey, I screwed up the hotel reservations in Fishkill, NY and shorted myself one day because I honestly did not know how long it would take to get from Brockton, MA. Guess, what? It takes four hours. So, I somehow found the nearest hotel, Courtyard by Marriott, to this place called Library Park that, so I was told, had headstones in it. Possibly a Fulford headstone in the park of this guy:

Name       Lt. Gershom Fulford, F416, M
Birth Date      1701
Birth Place     of Waterbury, New Haven Co., Connecticut
Death Date      7 Jan 1790 Age: 89
Death Place     Watertown, New Haven Co., Connecticut
Occupation      Blacksmith
Flags           Military
Father          Abraham Fulford , M (~1675-)
Mother          Phebe Clark , F (1675-1717)

Yep, that's one of my ancestors, my 6th great grandfather. He was a Lieutenant and fought in the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763. But since it's a federal holiday, everything in the downtown area is closed. I took a walk to the park where the headstones are supposed to be, but I honestly think they are not there anymore. there were some knuckleheads along the wall I was supposed to look at, but I'm thinking the stones were move or removed due to their deterioration.

I located a German Fine dining restaurant at Dreschers but I was devastated to learn they are not open for dinner on Mondays.

I thought I was going to go on the hunt for my 6th great grandfather in the biggest library I can find in Waterbury while I'm here before driving the last two hours to Fishkill, but decided on doing more online research instead. On the city's website, it named someone from the Silas Bronson Library as he city historian. I've decided to contact her.

My Aunt Tressa called last night to tell me that my cousin Debbie just had a baby and that I should visit her in LaGrange since she's off work. More family time. Yeah!

Vacation day 2, Oct 9th

Vacation day 2, Oct 9th:

I took my time getting up and getting acclimated to the time change before driving down to New Bedford to meet my cousin Debra, her boyfriend Ed and her kids Chelsea and Brittany. Debra is a ministry assistant and I'm not churchy, so I didn't want to impede on her Sunday too much. The kids, who are actually college age, were working at iparty.com at the South Dartmouth Mall. iparty happens to be the east coast competition/equivalent to Party City. We sat and talked and watched football. We have so much in common as people but not so much in life experiences.


I can't say that it's an interesting fact that many of the men on the Stutz side of the family are estranged, but it is noteworthy. More and more I'm thinking that is has to do with a strong sense of French heritage. C'est La Vie. But that'a just my theory.

Debbie took me to St Mary's Cemetery in New Bedford where my grandmother was buried, but we couldn't locate the headstone. I'm not surprised. She hasn't been back in two years since the funeral. We then drove to 270 Shaw Street, the childhood home of Bernie. It's a two unit property. All of them on that street are. Then Debbie took me to see Dorothy Aguiar at 330 Query Sreet. She's 76 years old and still lives in her family home, though her parents has long sense pasted away. She's pretty deaf, but still talks. Everyone says she's a little off. Her front door was plastered with bumper stickers. Ed lives in the area so he sees her frequently walking around the neighborhood.

We came back to Debbie's house, said our good-byes to Ed and then took off to pick-up her daughters from work. After, Debbie took all of us to dinner at Friendlys. Debbie is on a high protein diet and mine is non-dairy so I struggled but found a dish I could eat Teriyaki chicken stir fry.

Vacation day 1, Oct 8th

Day one of my vacation started at 4AM to wake up and get ready to meet up with the shuttle service, Primetime. I packed the night before and it took so long, I really had only a nap instead of a full night's sleep which for me would be a whopping 6 hours. It's nice that not long after my alarm went off, then my cell phone was ringing and it was the automated wake-up call from the shuttle telling me they will be there to pick me up in 75 minutes. I took a shower. I was anxious. Knowing that there was rain in the forecast, but the weather would be mostly OK, I wanted to take an umbrella but not my raincoat because I thought that would be just too hot for the trip and hard to store if I didn't end up using it. My umbrella was toast - the end cap was missing, so I took my son's and my leather jacket. Before I stepped out of the house, I fixed the hole I made 3 years ago at work in the jacket on the lower right side, finally, with crazy glue. I went through my purse again to make sure there was nothing in it that wouldn't go through the TSA security checkpoint easily and had to put my lipstick and Vaseline in the quart baggie for inspection. OK, I'm ready and waiting on my side street to go. It's 5AM. My neighborhood is a mass of humanity with all of the apartments and if I stand outside your front door, I'll see the ebb and flow of the neighborhood. There were two men standing on the overpass before the bus stop waiting for a ride, but I don't remember the bus coming or maybe their ride never showed up, but I was still waiting for the shuttle service when they were walking home chatting in Spanish. I wanted to ask, "No trabajo al dia?", but did not want to shout it from across the street in the dead of morning. I shuttle called my cell home again this time to tell me that they are on my corner and I instructed him to turn right - I can see the van. I rode with other travelers to the airport to begin an adventure. There was one other bleary eyed woman from Foothill Ranch, a city further south than mine, on the trip to Long Beach Airport (LBA) with me. There was no traffic so we got there on time. I know it's early and you'd expect that there is no traffic, but frequently there has been many overnight freeway closures for road repair and it jams up because of this fact. No such thing on he 405 north traveling to the airport though. It's nice that the drop-off point was at the front of the terminal. I executed an electronic check-in with Jet Blue online the night before so I was able to walk right past the counter and straight to the security checkpoint for TSA screening, which was in a portable trailer. This airport is old and under construction. They way it's set-up now reminds me of how Ontario was in the early 90's... full of portables disguised as gates that lead you right out onto the tarmac. I went though security without a hitch. I wore my favorite pull on city pants from New York and Company, black silk knitted polo and my DKNY flip flops with the 'shape-ups' sole. Thinking about all of the walking I'd be doing, I thought they would be good for the trip, but especially at Disneyworld, because those shoes are nice and cushy. TSA informed me that the laptop must be placed into a tray on it's own, everything else you strip off of your person can go in a second tray... jacket, keys, purse, shoes, yes they are still x-raying those, and your quart baggie with any liquids your traveling with. There was a buzz at the Jet Blue gate about going to Utah for a football game. Others were going to Reno via Utah. I was flying to Boston via Seattle. Our gate assignment was changed. They, Jet Blue staff, walked us outside to the other gate where we waited until it was time to board. The ramps are ghetto, but ramps none the less. They are old and kind of rickety and kind of steep. They are lined with grit, but I felt like I was sliding backward in my flip flops getting up to the plane. About my seat assignment... row 9 is between other rows people pay an extra $35 to get for extra legroom. Now I'm 5'1", so I don't take up much space, but if I knew in advance that the seat wouldn't recline, I wouldn't have sat there on such a long flight. I was in 9A so at least I could stare out of the window. The snacks are cool on Jet Blue. They make you feel like a grown-up. I'd like some corm poppers - kettle flavor and a ginger ale. The bottled water is Danasi mineral water, which I don't like. It leaves you with a fine grit in your mouth. That can't be good. I pooed on the plane for the first time in my life. When I've got to go, I've got to go NOW. I timed leaving my seat just as someone was leaving the john. The flight attendant said to be quick because they were starting to descent into Seattle soon. I don't think I ever went so fast in my life. I hate the ascent and descent part of flying just like I do roller coasters. My stomach feels weird. We landed early at Sea-Tac. I had a lay over which was OK because it was almost lunch time and I hadn't eaten any breakfast except for the chips and soda on the plane. The trip from Seattle to Boston was long and had a bit of turbulence. Throughout the flight, I would change the DirecTv to channel to 14 which was a google map with an ever moving icon of where the plane was located over the US and Canada. I drank only one can of ginger ale and no snack on this trip. I had to use the john again. I found the men were peeing in the sink on this flight. Don't they know the difference between the sink and a toilet? A sink had no urinal cake in it. Eew. Logan International Airport. It's big and old and being remodeled, too. On the approach for landing, we had to fly over the Atlantic and past Nantucket. I bet those high dollar residents love that. The buoys out in the harbor have blue lights on them. At this point, you should read my Yelp.com review of Hertz dated 10/08. It took about 30 minutes to drove from the airport to the hotel in Brockton. And then you should read my Yelp.com review of Country Inn & Suites. I finally went to sleep at 1AM..

How I spent my summer vacation 2011

My summer vacation blog entry has been postponed until October. One day will be about burying my mother's ashes next to her parents in Red Hook. The rest of the time is mine to do what I want. I'm taking two weeks off work.

JetBlue.com states that with a 2 hour layover in Seattle, I will get to Boston 2 hours eariler than if I flew directly to JFK. O.K., I'm game because the experience of flying with JetBlue is supposed to be nice. So then I'm an hour away from my cousin Debbie. Since I'll be landing at about 9:30PM east coast time, and having flown all day, I'll pick up my rental car and stay at a hotel in Boston. Sunday morning, I'll drive to Debbie's house meeting her after church. Family time. I want to do as much "meet & greet" with family as well as geneology research as I can while on the east coast, so coordinating all of that has been a big part of my plans. I'll be visiting MA, CT, and NY.

There is something weird going on with my aunts and I'm not quite sure what it is. Tressa and Grace talk but not to their oldest sister, Jane. Tressa was written out of her mother's will. Grace took care of my grandma until she passed away and was buried with grandpa in Red Hook and that's where my moms ashes are going to be placed because that was my mom's wish and she was a heir. I'll be dealing with that drama while there. I also have to do a speech at the event which I'm not looking forward to. I realize no one really knows me and I can say anything I want, really. It's more for them than for me. If they only knew some of the crappy things my mom did to me and my brother when we were kids, but now that she's dead, does it really matter that much? I have a theme and I think I'm going to read from the bible psalms 34 since that was the year she was born. What the hell.

The day after the remembrance, I'm flying on JetBlue again from Newburgh to Orlando to go to Disneyworld/Epcot. I'll have a day and a half there and then fly home on Jet Blue for the 3rd time Saturday. I've got to have some fun while on vacation...

No Rain

The weather this week has been strange. Yesterday, it was cold as hell - in Southern California standards, that is. It was in the high 40's to the low 50's last night. High school friends living in Yucaipa complained of the snow ruining their fruit trees. That alone makes me glad I left. I hate being cold. I visited the snow just once as a little kid. I can't remember who took me, but I think it was my mom. She pulled off of the road and I remember getting out of the car and my feet crunching in the newly fallen snow, then the cold hit me and I was done. My day in the snow took all of 10 minutes.

Today, it's bright and sunny. My one cat was so happy she could go outside again, she talked me into it. I lounged on the chaise on my patio in the sun for awhile. It got too hot for yesterday's uniform I threw on again this morning... white Mickey Mouse sweatshirt, grey sweatpants and powder blue Uggs.

Beginning on Monday, work goes into overdrive. There was a final vote on Friday and the vote was go-go to move the vast majority of our first lien mortgage loan servicing activities to another company. I've already marked FHA loans as such. I think we're getting a whopping 22 days total to get it accomplished. My manager asked about my vacation plans again and I told him I'm coordinating with my cousins to make the trip. Vacationing in NewYork. I think I will be traveling there right before Octoberfest in Germantown. Something to look forward to besides trolling for headstones of my ancestors.

[Photo Credit: Dominic Grisafe, April 2011]

Away: Day 2 - San Jose, Santa Clara and Mountain View

We had a hard time sleeping due to all of the traffic noise from staying in the cheap motel. Granted, it was clean, it has a good wireless internet connection, and a free meatless continental breakfast that at least my son seemed interested in, but after stepping out into the morning air and being pummeled with the stench garlic in the air you just couldn't seem to get away from, it was time to go.

Driving to San Jose 40 miles north of Gilroy in rush hour traffic was not my idea of fun, but I did it anyway. 101 N to 82 takes you straight into downtown San Jose. Check-in is at 3PM and the museum my son wants to go to doesn't open until noon, so we definitely have some time to kill. What to do? Well, I'm hungry and thirsty since I haven't ate breakfast yet, so we find a bagel shop in Mountain View.

They end up having a couple of local rags and my son finds out that Intel has their own museum in the area and it opens at 10AM. O.K., plans are now forming up nicely. I finish my bagels, banana and apple juice and we head on over to Intel thanks to the GPS. From where we parked, I didn't see the front of the museum entrance, so I just followed to where everyone else was walking. Turns out that was an employee entrance where a guard it.

The Intel Museum, located in Santa Clara in the same general area, turns out to be located in the back of the Intel company store and is an homage to the founders of the company for starters. The rest of the museum is about their advertising, their processes and their technological advances to the computer industry. Yeah, Intel! I had enough corporate controlled shenanigans for the day. Get me out of here.

We then drove back to Mountain View where the Computer History Museum is located. We got there just about the same time they opened. We went through the visual storage room which took almost 2 hours. It's a graveyard of all things computer. All things. Think of every major computer name and brand you can - now. Yup, they have it. Amazing place. My dad would of loved to see the Difference Engine No. 2. An engineering wonder. It was the first mechanical adding machine ever made. It's about as big as maybe three refrigerators pushed together.

After going though yet another display, I was tired, my son was hungry, so we decided to drive back to San Jose to have lunch. I drove around trying to orient myself to the hotel location, but I was having a hard time doing that. I finally decided to park and get out and walk. Everything is so close, so why not? I ended up parking under the federal courts building two blocks away.

From the local rag he picked up earlier, he saw a restaurant he wanted to try, but after we read their lunch menu posted on the outside of the building, we decided it didn't sound too good. I peeked my head around the corner of the building to find a noodle house. It ended up being a thai place which was fine. They has good basic food which I was very happy to discover so I didn't get sick on it. My son had beef with egg noodles and yellow curry which was supposed to be medium heat, but he was sweating practically all the way through the meal and drank two Mexican Cokes and an ice water before he gave up.

Later, we checked into the hotel and found it to be very nice. It was Thursday night and my son decided to get lost for awhile and do something he wanted to do as I went to the city park near the hotel to listen to some live Beatles music with about 3000 of newest friends from San Jose.

We were still full from lunch, so we skipped dinner. I was running on empty energy-wise at this point from all the go-go-going since Tuesday night, so after the concert was over, I enjoyed the comfortable feather bed in the hotel room and kicked back for awhile. I sent Stephen out for a soda after he got back from the card shop. I had no idea where the nearest convenience store was but for some strange reason, he did and it came in handy. He got me a Pepsi.

Away: Day 1 - Gilroy, CA

I drove to Gilroy, California, today. It took six and a half hours between the four pit stops and all the driving. You're probably saying to yourself, "Why Gilroy?" Well, why not? As we quickly realized though, Gilroy is a lot like Lake Elsinore in many ways. The city has only one seasonal attraction (The Garlic Festival which happens in July so we missed it), an outlet mall (Gilroy Premium Out Mall which is akin to the one in Cabazon), a revitalized downtown area and not much else going on. Actually, after comuting to and from Simi Valley for the past year and a half, I didn't know how long I could stand being on the road, so I comitted myself to Gilroy and a cheap hotel room with free wireless internet access for the night and I was proud of myself for making it. Driving long distances without the stress of rush hour traffic I can do.

At 1PM as we neared out hotel, across the street is a quaint themed family restaurant called The Black Bear Diner. Bears and bear paw prints surround you as you dine on their good food. After that we cruised downtown and then made our way over to the outlet mall before checking in.

6:30AM departure
top off gas tank at Arco
5 N
breakfast at Noah's Bagels at Stevenson Ranch
pit stop at Travel America past Gorman
pit stop and gas a Harris Ranch. Cleaned the windshield.
152 W
101 N
Leavesley exit.

Tomorrow, we will spend the day in Mountain View and San Jose.