Tax Day 2008

Today was a dreaded day for a lot of folks... Tax Day. This is the second year that I have filed as a married person. And what comes with being married and having decent jobs? More taxes! So we get to PAY Uncle Sam this year... It is really weird to not receive a nice fat check from the government for the first time ever. And I thought it was hard to give up my refund for the past two years and actually share it with another person... this year is definitely even harder! In our agreeement as the compromising married couple that we are, we agreed to hire an accountant this time to do our taxes and a maid to clean our house. So Mr. CPA took our paperwork and Marlene started cleaning yesterday. Yes, I finally broke down and agreed to let a stranger in our home to clean up our day-to-day messes. How greedy is that? But, I have to tell you it really does free up some of my precious time outside of work, commute, and exercise. Now if we could just find a chef too....

Tired Is Not EVEN The Right Word For Me

I finally made it back to Atlanta on Friday night/Saturday morning from my workweek in Denver. Yes, that would be at 12:45am on Saturday morning. It seemed like forever while waiting for my bag at Baggage Claim and then the trek to Ground Transportation to catch the Shuttle bus to my truck at the off terminal parking down the street. By the time I got on the bus, I was exhausted and it was raining. I wound up tipping the bus driver $5 bucks because I only had a five and a twenty but, it paid off… since I was his only rider and tipped him so well, he not only unloaded my 48 pound suitcase… he personally put in my truck for me IN THE RAIN! Man, what a great shuttle driver! Kudos to Pre-Flight Parking off Camp Creek Pkwy. By the time I drove home it was after 2:00am and I barely managed to wrestle that freaking 48 pound suitcase up the stairs in the garage to the den… when I did get in the door the warmth and smell of home just embraced me… it was like heaven after a week of air planes, training classes, hotel rooms, and rowdy co-workers. I stumbled to bed and just hugged my husband.
Saturday flew by… most of which was spent indoors and doing laundry. But, we did enjoy sushi out for supper. And then Sunday we left for back home… yes, I had to go home to sign my grandmother’s taxes. As her Legal Guardian I have to sign them but the worse part is that I still cannot believe that Uncle Sam still makes an 80-year-old file for taxes! How is that possible? Just because my grandparents scrimped and saved their entire lives in a lower-income bracket should not mean they have to pay taxes even up to now on that same money! Absolutely ridiculous…
Yet and still, we made the trip to sign the taxes yesterday and I drove back this morning only to spend the entire day touring two water treatment plants in the city of Atlanta (or what I like to refer as “the bowels of hell”). These are those type places where you do not touch ANY thing around you because lord knows what is on it now or what has touched it before you- nasty with a capital N. The tour was the second site walk for this upcoming project we are bidding. The bid date is next Wednesday and coming up really soon. And then what happens? I find out at 5pm today that I have to fly to Denver AGAIN this week! Yes, THIS week… this Thursday to be exact. And not only am I flying TO Denver on Thursday, but I am flying back FROM Denver on Thursday too! Didn’t I just get back from there? What… 3 days ago? And now I am going again in 3 days from now. My flight leaves Atlanta at 6:25am and arrive back here at 8:00pm that night…. Nothing like getting up at 4:00am to be gone for the next 16 hours! I tell you that beach vacation next week is looking better and better each day this week…

Day 4- Georgia On My Mind

Today was Day 4 in my week out-of-town for work... and it is about 4 days too many! I am SO ready to go home...I guess the home sickness sat in on Tuesday maybe...? On a positive note, I woke up this morning to horizontal flying snow... you know...like a very blustery blizzard. How nice is that?

It snowed until mid-afternoon and then the wind blew it all away! Now it is just really windy and frigid. And you know how much I love cold weather, so I am loving this weather! But, I am really, really, really ready to go home... really. Period.

Day 1- I Can Feel My Hair Turning Gray While Waiting in Security Line

So I left my house this morning 3 hours before my flight departure time. Traffic was pretty light considering it is spring break this week… I was stoked at how quick I got to the Park-n-Ride lot… little did I know the debacle that was ahead of me at the airport at the time. Yes, I arrived to the curbside check-in at 9:10… I opted to pay the $3 per bag fee to check-in curbside to avoid the long lines at the ticket counters inside. But, I had no idea that the line for security was wrapped zigzag around each and every one of the baggage claims throughout the Delta terminal and then out the doors outside of the freakin’ airport building! And then down the sidewalk and wrapped twice! I was in shock and then pushed to the end of the line by the airport security folks… It seriously took me almost an hour and a half to get to the security gates… Unbelievable. And top of the crazy-long wait, some kid kept randomly bumping me the entire time along the way with himself or his bag… And it was hotter than blazes too. Oh, and my tote bag (oversized purse/tote) was pretty heavy- 19.5 lbs to be exact- yes, I actually weighed it at the curbside check-in. I was so excited when I got through the metal-detection equipment… these legs could not get me to the train and the gates fast enough. I made it to the gate just a few minutes before they called my zone to load the plane. And of course, the plane was FULL. I lucked up and got an aisle seat but sitting next to two large men so my personal space was minimal and my elbows kept getting hit by the drink cart. We finally finished the oh-so turbulent landing and made it off the plane. After a weird encounter with a blind man and his walking stick, I retrieved my bag from baggage claim and then called the shuttle. They informed me they could not pick up until 2:30… that was almost 2 hours from then! So here we go again… stuck at the airport waiting… the worse thing about the airport are the droves of people… SO many people! I personally think the Atlanta airport is the worst of the worse….I guess that being such a large airport it is only expected. But, you would think that by now they would have the security delays down pat. Oh, well it probably only happens during holidays and spring break I suppose.
Here I am in my hotel room and watching the second ep of The Hills… Day 1 done…cannot wait for Friday already.

Denver Bound

Boy, has this weekend flown by… especially when you are preparing to leave for a week away from home. Yes, I am flying to Denver tomorrow morning for a week of operations training. Now what exactly is operations training you ask? I have no idea! I guess I will let you know when I return after my flight arrives back in Atlanta on Friday night at 12 MIDNIGHT… Yes, that is right- midnight! What a crock of hoo-hah is that? The worse part about the whole trip is that I have not been away from my husband since we met for more than 2 nights… I have spent all weekend washing and packing and then also preparing for his being home alone… Today I have the kitchen all stocked up, his clothes are all clean, and his choice movies from Netflix are on their way in the mail… I mean what else could a man ask for? I almost have this dread-like feeling in the pit of my stomach like when my parent would leave me as a child and yet, I am the one leaving him! It is not my fault… I did not choose to go on this trip. My company chose me for this training week and believe me… if I have it my way, I would stay home! Besides the fact I hate flying and that flight always seems SO much longer than the 3 hours it is… It is a bunch of male PM’s and Superintendents and me for a 5-day stint in the classroom… can you detect my excitement? I would rather poke toothpicks in my retinas. I do hope the hotel has wireless so I can blog. The weather is forecasting highs in the 40’s and lows in 20/30’s- now that is about the only thing I am looking forward to on this trip…you know how I love cold weather!

Alzheimer's vs. Cancer 2

I wrote a blog back in late February titled Alzheimer’s vs. Cancer. This blog represented a subject that is very near and dear to my heart and I put a lot of effort into composing it. I got a LOT of feedback on the blog at my “other” blog-posting site. I did not get one single comment on this blog site when I posted… until this week. Someone “Anonymous” left me a comment this week on a blog post that was over a month old… they signed the comment “Mary-Anne”… now I do not mind folks I do not know commenting on this blog… the reason I am writing about this comment in particular though is to share with you the interesting link she added to her comment. This article “Alzheimer’s or Cancer: Which Disease Would You Rather Die From?” came out almost 3 weeks after my blog post… interesting article to say the least… I think this is such an interesting topic that could be discussed at so many different levels and in so many different angles. I still support my position and so does the writer of this article. Go check it out for yourself!
In the meantime, I keep seeing more and more commercials on the TV these days for Alzheimer’s medicines… mostly Aricept. I also keep seeing more articles in the AJC/local newspapers too about “dealing with aging parents and their dementia”… I am telling you- it is a HUGE sign of what is about to come in the future… Be Prepared I tell you! It is going to be a plague and I just hope that everyone is ready for it… if they do not put more money and effort into the research of this disease, we are all headed down a very scary and painful road… Soon enough... I guarantee it.

Exercise Does A Body Good?

In my ongoing battle against my bulge, I started taking some exercise classes in the evenings to try and lose some weight, speed up my metabolism, yadda yadda yadda and so on and so on… Believe it or not, I have been overweight pretty much my entire life and now that I am in my mid-30’s I am really begin to “feel” the effects of carrying all the extra poundage around these years. I have tried many diets in my adult life… some worked… some didn’t… but, here I am back to the same weight… I actually weigh the exact same as I did when I was 25 years old… but, once I hit 30, I started carrying it differently. My bones and joints seem to crack and ache more now. I really feel it early in the mornings when I get out the bed and late at night before I go to bed. Even so with all my aches and pains and over-weightiness, I still know that deep down that I have an athletic Kelly living somewhere inside of this body. So I decided to go back to my old exercise studio where they push me to exert myself in hopes of losing the weight to connect once again with the old Kelly… the athletic Kelly that enjoyed sports… the old Kelly that fit into much smaller clothes… the proud Kelly that felt more confident about herself when she entered the room… THAT is Kelly I am searching for….
I have been attending these classes for a few weeks now and so far I am really enjoying my time there. The teacher is a feisty lady in her 40’s that loves to torture me with all kinds of crazy exercises… I have made some good “exercise class” friends there (folks I would never see at work or play- only at this studio)… the camaraderie is wonderful so far… but, then there is those “other people”… you know- the ones that come to class and then proceed to not do half the exercises because they have “bad knees” or “bad ankles”… WTH people? I do not understand why these folks even bother coming to class unless you are there to EXERCISE. That is the whole reason the rest of us are there… why not them? This one lady in particular has just really gotten under my skin the last few classes I have been to…. She is definitely in serious need of lessening the “junk in her trunk” and what better way than to exercise it off? Yet, she would rather stand there and keep talking about how she cannot do the 100 jumping-jacks like the rest of us because of her bad knees… you know, if you would do the exercises with the rest of us you would not have the time or energy to keep flapping them jaws lady!!! Seriously, I am over here on the floor trying to push myself through 50 push-ups and 50 sit-ups after doing the 100 jumping-jacks and this lady keeps chatting next to me about how she doesn’t like these exercises and I just keep trying to zone her out and keep focused on my rep counts. The class is running/sprinting in place and she is throwing half-hearted punches in the air…. We are doing squat/jogs all around the room and she is complaining about her knees and not squatting or jogging… she short-cuts every exercise and never stops complaining throughout the entire class time and it DRIVES ME NUTS! People like her just need to stay home and off those bad knees and ankles for crying out loud…. All they are doing to slowing the rest of us overweight folks down in our exercise regimen and keeping us from staying on task… I was so glad when she did not show up last night for class. It was nice to focus on me and my pain from all the boot-camp type torture the teacher was putting us through. Hopefully, all this pain and sweat will pay off one day… I just hope I don’t punch this lady in the process…