Sunday, March 22, 2009

Local Flavor

First, I would just like to say, only the best friends ever would drive 7 hours each way with two kids in the car just to spend one day with you.

Yesterday, Trisha and her family and I went to Savannah. It was fabulous. I could have spent days. I will be sure and post all about it soon. Maybe later.

Since I have been here in Georgia, I have been doing a lot of local eating. At the training center, they serve a lot of southern food. I have never seen so many ways to make vegetables. I have had creamed asparagus, corn, spinach, and peas. I have had fried okra, fried green beans, and fried corn fritters. I even tried the greens. I don't like greens. At least I don't like those greens. They have chicken and a lot of fish.

I have been eating at some local places too. Last weekend, after my Jekyll Island, adventure I stopped at a fast food place called Krystal. It was kind of like White Castle with the little square burgers. They had hot dogs and stuff too, like a Sonic. The little burgers were better than White Castle. Yesterday, Trisha's gang and I had breakfast at a Cracker Barrel. I had never eaten there before. I had blueberry pancakes. Today, before the left, we had breakfast at Shoney's. My roommate, Geis, went with some guys and had breakfast at a Waffle House near by. People here in the south eat a lot of grits for breakfast. I will never forget the time my mom asked a waitress in Tennessee what a grit was. She laughed and laughed. I do not like grits. At least, all the grits I have tried I didn't like. They were all breakfast grits. Here they have a specialty dish, shrimp and grits. I like shrimp and the grits are cheesy and look good. I wonder if they are. While we were in Savannah yesterday we decided to eat at a local seafood place right on the Savannah River. It was called Fiddler's Crab Shack. We all had crab legs and shrimp. (I had steamed shrimp, but Trisha and Casey had fried shrimp.) It was so good. Seafood is a big part of Savannah. While we were out exploring Savannah, we tried pecan pralines. They were so good. I got a bunch to share with my classmates here and some to take home. I got a bag just for Geis too. They were sweet and crunchy, but not too crunchy like peanut brittle.

Anyway, all this food talk is making me want some. Maybe I will get me a praline and see what Geis is doing.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Jekyll Island Revisited

I know I promised pictures but I have been working hard this week. We had testing, evaluations, firearms qualifications, and more classes. So anyways, I figured I better get them up before this weekend's adventure. This weekend Trisha and the family are coming and we are going to Savannah. Well, let's get on with the pictures of Jekyll Island, Georgia.

This was my friend for my adventure.


This is the bridge to Jekyll Island.


This is a swampy water way. It has a name but I don't remember it.


This is the Jekyll Island visitor's center. It wasn't open.


This is my first look at the Atlantic Ocean. It looked pretty much the same as the Pacific Ocean. It did smell different. The Pacific smells more fishy and salty.


This is another look at the Atlantic. You can see behind the fog a different island. I think it was called St. Simon's Island.


This is the entrance to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. I saw the sign and I knew Carolynn would kill me if I didn't stop. So I did. I looked in the museum and scored Carolynn some loot.



At the sea turtle place they had a sea turtle recovery hospital. I went and took a look at some turtles recovering from injury.


After the sea turtle place, I went to the Jekyll Island museum. It is in an old stable building. Jekyll Island used to be an exclusive millionaires club in the 20's. From the museum they have a tour of the island. I signed up.




These are some of the mansions from the early part of the 20th century that are on Jekyll Island. On my tour, I got to go inside some of them, but no pictures were allowed. It was a fun tour though. These are only a few of the mansions. They actually called them cottages though. I took a lot of pictures of these cottages.


After I visited Jekyll Island, I visited downtown Brunswick, Georgia. This is the town I am staying in. I thought it looked so much like Mayberry. I took pictures there until my camera battery died. I took over 100 pictures total that day.

This was the police station in downtown Brunswick. I was waiting for Andy and Barney to come on out.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Jekyll Island

I had a great day. I am done with yesterday. I said what I needed to say and now I am done. I took off this morning and explored downtown Brunswick and Jekyll Island. I took over 100 pictures. But you get to see none today because my internet is being a jerk. Sorry. Hopefully tomorrow. It was great though. I am sending out postcards and I got magnets for me and my mom. I got some turtle stuff for Carolynn. I got a Christmas ornament. Tomorrow there will be pictures and a full story.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Follow Up

For those of you who may have already e-mailed me regarding the previous post... You don't get a say in this either. It is my life, my blog, my house, my everything. If you don't like it, oh well. Besides, you make no sense.

For those of you considering e-mailing me regarding that last post... Same thing applies to you.

Have a nice day.

Time Out

Today is my first day off here in Georgia. I rented a car yesterday. Last night I went to dinner with a bunch of people from my class. Today my plan was to sleep in, run a few errands and go check out the sights here in the Golden Isles of Georgia. Car rentals here are not cheap, so I wanted to make sure and get plenty of use out of it. But did I do that today? Of course not.

Oh sure, it started out fine. I slept in late. I got up and got dressed and went to a late breakfast with some people. Then I came back to my hotel to get my clothes together so I could go get them washed and run the errands. But I didn’t make if far. Why? Because people can’t get along. People are close minded and refuse to compromise. People are basically just being jerks.

It is hard for me being here. I never been this far away from my kids for so long. I left my life behind. I came out here to learn some hard stuff in order to keep my job. I like my job. I don’t want to lose my job. I looked for a job a long time. This job, as scary as it is at times, gives me the ability to pay my bills, pay off my car, and buy things I need or want. Because of this job, within a year or so, I can buy my own home and a new car. So it is also hard for me being here because of the pressure to do well to keep my job. I actually fell apart a bit in a class because I was just so stressed. Luckily, that happens a lot and I got it together and went on.

But the hardest thing for me is my loss of control. I am a very controlling person. I get it from my mother. I know it and I accept it. However I am not close-minded and I have the ability to compromise. It is hard for me to be here because I am not there making sure things get done and people are fine. I left that to David. David knows how I do things. He has never been anything but kind. I don’t care that he is young. I don’t care that he isn’t filled of life experience. He is filled with kindness and the willingness to try and do anything he can. I appreciate that. But to my mother he is just some young jackass who can’t even breathe right. Well, tough. I am done playing referee. I understand how David d feels. I never could do anything right to my mom either. I get stressed over it. I do things I might not have wanted to because of it. I shouldn’t have to and he shouldn’t have to either.

Today Catherine had a softball game. The paper said it started at noon. David, who had a day off today, got up and took Catherine out. They did some recycling and went to the bank. He returned to the house at 11:30 to pick up Catherine’s softball stuff and get her to the game. The ball field is only about 5 minutes from the house. When they got to the house Carolynn informed them that Catherine was supposed to be there at 11:30. She said my mom called the house and told her. Did my mom tell David? Nope. Did anyone mention to David that Catherine had to be there by 11:30? Nope. Does Carolynn have a history of not relaying information about her sister’s softball? YES! So when David was now running late and feeling terrible and trying to get her there as soon as possible, what does my mom do? She calls me. In Georgia. Yells at me that David shouldn’t b allowed to do anything. He is just too stupid. And because I allowed him to handle this, Catherine won’t be allowed to play in her game today. And also, David talks on his cell phone while driving. So she was just going to go home because she just can’t handle this. I called David. He said Catherine was a tiny bit late because he didn’t know where the field was. He said she was in right field right now. I was in tears. I was so worried that Catherine would miss her game. I was so upset that I can’t even trust people to keep it together for me to do this training. David seems to be doing everything I asked. I don’t give a rat’s ass if the house isn’t perfectly clean. I could care less. The kids are going to school, eating and clean. I talk to them several times a day. But because my mom and dad hate David for no reason, they couldn’t be bothered to pass on simple information about Catherine’s game. Do you know what my mom said when I pointed that out? She said David should have known any organized sport would do that. I didn’t know. I would have gotten her there about 10 minutes early to warm up before the game. I would have known where the field was though.

I moved there to be near family. I moved there to live a better life. My mom was very helpful in getting there. She helped me look for jobs or watched the kids of If needed. But I am not going to live my life her way. My house will never be clean enough. My kids will never be good enough. David will never be a human being. Until I start doing everything her way, it won’t be the right way. If I wanted to live like that I would have stayed married. But from this day forward, it is my way or the highway. It is my life.

As for David, he is free to stay as long as he helps me at the house, pays his share, has a job and goes to school. He has no obligation to try and impress them. He will continue to be civil to them. He should however stop talking on the phone while driving. He doesn’t need a ticket or to get in an accident. I will have to beat him.

Now I am sure that somewhere in Adelanto people are laughing, but you people are worse. My mom is a jerk out of love. You are just jerks. You can’t be bothered to call you father and say hey, even when he calls you. You don’t visit him or anything. You are unable to see passed your own issues and see Grandpa. You only care about yourself. Shame on you. You are missing out.

Finally, before I conclude this rant, I just want to say Catherine’s team won her game. Catherine got a hit and drove in a run. She also walked and scored a run herself. Afterward, she went to the Burger King to celebrate. She has another game on Friday and again next Saturday. Next time David will be sure and get her there an hour before and to the correct field.

Now I don’t want to hear anymore about it. I don’t need the stress. Tomorrow I am going to check out Georgia. I don’t want to waste any more car rental money.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Georgia

I have been here in Georgia for three days now. It is quite something. Monday I just traveled. I left from my work at 4:15 AM. It was a long ride to LAX. After that, a plane ride to Dallas and a two hour layover. Then came the plane ride to Jacksonville, Florida. From there I took a bus from the airport to FLETC here in Georgia. (FLETC= Federal Law Enforcement Training Center) I am staying off the base at a Comfort Inn in the city of Brunswick. I have a roommate. She is in my class. Her name is Geis and she is from New York. She is also Dominican and she has a fabulous accent. She came with a few other guys from New York and they all have fabulous accents. They are fun people. They didn’t think they had accents though. They did think the people here in Georgia had accents. They do too.

Tuesday we began training. The first day was pretty easy. We had orientation. We were issued uniforms and gym clothes. But yesterday, we got down to business. First, we had to take our physical fitness test. If you can’t pass that, then you have to leave. There is no need for additional training. I of course passed the test, since I am still here. Unfortunately one gal in our class didn’t make it. I felt so bad. She was so close.

Today we had weapons training. I never shot a gun before, but tomorrow we start. We just had classroom stuff today.

The food here is fabulous. There is a lot of southern food. Mac and cheese, casseroles, fish, fried chicken…

I rented a car for the weekend. I think I will see the sights of Georgia. I am sure there will be pictures. The internet here isn’t super though so, I will do what I can.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Georgia On My Mind

Here I am in fabulous Georgia at the great Comfort Inn of Brunswick. My roommate is from New York. She has a great accent. It was a long day. More tomorrow.

Friday, March 06, 2009

Bake sale!

Tomorrow my softball team is having a bake sale.First my team will get are picture taken,then we will get our schedule for when our games are.I wear my pink uniform at practices,and I wear my blue one for games.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Softball

I have been going to softball.I've been there three times.(Well only two)I'm a Dodger.OMG!That is my favorite baseball team!My grandma thinks I'm doing
good.Yesterdays practice canceled,but we are having a bake sale on Saturday at the community center.I can't wait!

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Betty

I got home from Palm Springs this morning. Grandpa and I left about 8:20 this morning. We stopped at Smart & Final on the way home. He wanted to pick up some burritos. He likes the brand from Smart & Final because when he was working they used to sell those on the lunch trucks that would come around to the job sites. He got a box for Carolynn too. He thought she might enjoy some. Then we got some gas. He said my car isn't nearly as fuel efficient as my moms. That didn't stop him from planning a trip to Laughlin. We can go in April and my dad can go too.

After I got home, I was out running errands. I went to the bank. I went to Target for some cleaning supplies. I went to Best Buy to find a laptop case. I can't find one that fits. Then I went over to PetSmart to get some cat food. I mentioned to David, that we have had the same amount of cat food at home for weeks. He said Kitty hasn't been eating. She has also been acting strange. I decided that she was lonely. Since we lost Cleo, perhaps she was just feeling sad. So I decided we should get another cat. David and I went to the shelter and a cute little kitty adopted us. She is black and white so we called her Betty Boop. Here is a picture.



After we got home and we were getting Betty all set up, I figured out why Kitty hasn't been eating. Her food was bad. The container we keep it in had no lid. Carolynn said she had broken it weeks ago. Second, she had a huge bowl of it. It was all stale and gross. I hooked her up with a fresh bowl of new food and she chowed down. She wasn't lonely. She was starving. Oh well, Betty is here now. She seems happy too. Carolynn was excited. Cleo was her cat.

Tomorrow I go back to work. Only a few days until I leave for Georgia.

Monday, March 02, 2009

A Day With Grandpa

Finding Grandpa in a casino is like looking for a specific piece of straw in a barn. Do you have any idea how many old dudes are in a casino at any given time? He owns a cell phone, but he doesn’t carry it. (Sometimes he carries it at home if he left my Aunt a message and he is waiting for her to call back. He said she doesn’t call back.)

When I last left you, I was on my way to check on Grandpa and go to the pool. I did that. I try and check Grandpa every hour or so. Sometimes I see if he is winning big. Sometimes I play next to him for a little while. Sometimes I just see where he is and that he is still here and go back to what I was doing. I sat by the pool and listened to my iPod and read for awhile. I started getting a bit pink. I came inside so I didn’t burn. I played a few more slots and chatted up some folks.

Old folks are chatty. I leaned more than I needed to about the lives of various old folks here at the casino. Grandpa is chatty too. He told me about times he won on slots in Pahrump. He told me about going to Laughlin. He liked it, but it was cold. I could get us a room at the Aquarius in Laughlin in the Spring. I have never been and I know a place I can get a room for free. I will check into it on Wednesday. Grandpa said it looked nice and it was new. I also learned from Grandpa that his insurance no longer covers his old doctor and now he has to go to a new one in Victorville. That means no more doctors appointments down the hill, and going to San Manual after. Another interesting Grandpa fact I learned today: He has a card in his wallet to tell about his pacemaker. It has the serial number and everything. Yep, I saw it. He said it is so if something happens to him, then people will know about his pacemaker. Also, in case he is going through security at the airport, he can prove it to guards. He said that never happened though. Guards just take his word for it. I guess he has an honest look. I probably would take his word for it too. He’s an old dude. But I am more wary now. There are old dudes in prison too.

Anyway, after I played slots and chatted with folks, Grandpa and I went to the deli and split a tuna sandwich. He says he doesn’t eat as much as he used to, that is why we should just split a sandwich. I can guarantee he could have easily ate the whole thing. He ate the half, the potato salad and the pickles. I would be willing to bet money he goes there in the middle of the night/early in the morning and eats again. Then when I get up, he will eat breakfast. But he doesn’t eat like he used to.

After the sandwiches, I sat at the bar and played video poker. That is my favorite thing to do in the casinos. You play 1 quarter at a time, you aren’t just spinning the slots, and the bartender keeps your soda full. Best of all, you can play for a long time without going broke. I put $10.00 in, played for an hour and a half, and took out $8.00. Now I am relaxing in the room. Grandpa is asleep. He went to bed about an hour ago. He will probably be back up very early. Oh well, whatever makes him happy.

I am looking into getting m blog updated. Nikki made this cute sheep design, but I asked her if she could possibly make something more me specific. She has started a web design business. Check it out at DesignCoyote.com.

Catherine had her softball practice tonight. She said she did a lot of running.

That is all for now. I think I will take a swim in this giant tub.

Golden Goose

The Golden Goose is a slot machine my mom likes. I can’t find it. It was here last time. I thought I found it, but I didn’t. About a third of the machines here are closed up. I didn’t find the one I liked with the Lucky Meercats or Lucky Lemmings either. There are still plenty of slot machines available here at Agua Caliente in fabulous Palm Springs. Grandpa and I left about 8:00 this morning. We were here by 10:00. The room wasn’t ready when we got here, so Grandpa wandered off to play his favorite slots. He wanted to play a Zeus one. I sat outside for a while. It is in the 80’s here. Then I played a cool Indiana Jones game. I liked it. After that, I tried a Hawaiian game. It was okay. Then we had some lunch. Grandpa had some ham and eggs and I had a salad. Later we are going to get some tacos.

Our room was ready, so we checked in and now I am watching TV and relaxing. Grandpa is where Grandpa likes to be. He is having a good time. I am relaxing. I think I will go see what Grandpa is doing and maybe sit by the pool and relax.