I have a late summer cold that wants to take hold, so I have been power drinking EmergenC.  It's the best stuff on the planet, I have to tell you.  I prefer the tangerine flavor (I don't like tangerines, but it's orangey enough to pass), but if push comes to shove, I can do the strawberry.  It has a bajillion mg of Vitamin C in it and will knock about just almost anything that's trying to take you down.

My blood pressure is higher than Lindsay Lohan these days, despite taking the Michael's Blood Pressure Factors regularly.  I know it's just stress.  It's not like there's nothing going on or anything. (smirk)

I absolutely cannot BELIEVE that after we moved Founder's Day ahead two months on the calendar that we are STILL under threat of rain!  We had a wonderful time last year, but it was cold and raining like mad and we had to cram everything we were trying to do into the school and our poor chili cookoff contestants and some of the musicians were freezing their asses off under the rafters out in front of the school.  We figured we were safe as long as we planned prior to October 1st.  Now here we sit on a 40% chance of rain for Saturday.  I'm so mad I could just spit.  Of course, there was a 60% chance of rain today and not even a drop did I feel.  I'm really pretty much convinced that meteorology is a sham, so I'm proceeding as though it's going to be dry and clear. 

So there are about a million and six things to do for Founder's Day.  I get all of my obligations handled and then about 50 more pop up.  Meh, it is what it is.  Regardless, we'll have a wonderful day.  Any day I get to hear Mike Lawless sing is a wonderful day.  If I were Liz, I'd make him sing to me all the time.  He'd never be allowed to speak (although he also has a marvelous speaking voice).  He'd start telling me something about how the car is having issues and then I'd hold up one finger, give him "the look" and say something like, "Pip!  Pippipipip!" and he'd look all sheepish and start singing about how the car is having issue and I'd smile and look all self satisfied.  Eric (my own husband) can sing, but he has to be all liquored up and have a karaoke machine in front of him to do it.  If we'd been able to have the "After Party" we dreamed up for the night of Founder's Day, you likely would have seen for yourself.  But it was not to be this year and is a good idea for next year.

As it stands, we have some amazing talent lined up to sing for y'all.  It's a shame they only get 45-50 minutes each, but the event is only 5 hours long (only 5 hours) and we have to be able to give everybody a chance to perform.

So in addition to working on the premier Grizzly Flats event of the year, I have also been jumping through hoops which resulted in my now being amongst the folks of the world who are somewhat gainfully employed.  In another life, I worked full time and usually had a second job to boot.  I've worked full time since I was 16 years old and got my first job as a library assistant on Anderson Air Force Base (Guam).  Since then, I've been a waitress, a bus girl, a hostess, a Lamaze Childbirth Instructor (18 years of that one), an apprentice midwife (that one was unpaid), a library assistant a second time at a different library, a front desk manager at an OB/GYN clinic, a medical transcriptionist, a "break-fix" data entry clerk (the plane would break, gremlins would fix it and I would write about how they did it in a report to the Air Force), a data recorder for the AFTI F-16 project, which was a prototype fighter jet NASA was developing, a medical transcriptionist at another hospital, the administrator of a military preschool, a data recorder for a military police squadron, a telephone operator and an environmental protection assistant.  (whew!)  All of that spanned about 20 years.

When Eric and I got married, we decided I would be a stay at home mom, which was a choice I really appreciated.  It was nice to have a husband who supported that idea as it always tore me up to leave my little kids with other people while I went off to work.  Since we were starting a second family (I had 3 older children already who were practically grown and gone), it was a prime time to really enjoy the opportunity.  Not long after that, I started doing web design, which was nice because I could do it at home.  Now and then, I'd pick up a quick side job to help make ends meet, but overall, I got to be home with the kids, which I loved. 

Now, I'm a medical transcriptionist again.  Finding out about the job happened in such a round about way that I felt obliged to pursue it.  My experience in the field has not been used in over 13 years, so I'm pretty rusty.  With this company, you work out of your home, so that suits my lifestyle well.  I'll start out part time and move up to full time (maybe) as my speed and fluency improves.  I'll have to get back into the swing of doctor speak again. 

There were several stages to getting the job, different levels of testing and interviewing and applying and I kept expecting the process to break down at any time, but it didn't and I will be receiving written confirmation of the telephone offer that was made on Monday.  I'm still getting used to the idea.  There are so few opportunities to get a local job up here and this year alone, I have found two, so I know The Universe is telling me that for whatever reason, it's time for me to re-enter the labor force.  I'm not altogether excited about giving up my "me" time because as all of you know, I'm rather in tune with and totally love lolling about not doing jack shit, eating chocolates and drinking Dr Pepper and watching my shows and taking bubbles baths and having Eric carry me around on a little satin pillow, brushing my hair and tickling my cheek and such.  Something tells me that even part time work might get in the way of all that lolling about and that gives me frown creases.

I also have to be good enough at this so that by the time the kids are free from school for Spring Break (or Christmas Break, I guess), I'm not looking to kill them for distracting me from work.  I don't get started with training until October 8th, but that's a good thing because I'll get Founder's Day out of the way, then quietly slip out of the spotlight of community involvement and go back to hiding in my cave for the most part.  I will be a LOT less involved in GFORCE events and such things than I was this past year.   Founder's Day will be the big hurrah that heralds me moving to the sidelines a good bit. 

As if that's not enough, I'm also remodeling my house.  We have a refinance coming up in October, so I have been reworking Chez Rasbold. Some of the changes are dramatic (like taking the doors off of my cupboards, then painting the cupboards a blackish rose color) and some are more subtle (just moving furniture and cleaning carpets in my bedroom did the trick).  The bathroom is almost totally renovated.  I still have to paint the boys' room and do a few things in there.  There's painting and cleaning and clearing to do in all of the downstairs rooms, plus cleaning out a storage shed.  I expect to be finished in a couple of weeks, but I've been working on it pretty much nonstop for two weeks already.  Another big project is to paint my fireplace that some idiot painted white.  Who paints a functional fireplace that is *huge* white?  So there is soot and creote and all kinds of nasty stuff all over it.  I'm painting it a nice barn red.  Eric is going to try and install the dishwasher that is in the shed, that is, if it will fit.  We've been hauling the thing around for 10 years now because every house we've lived in has had one installed already.  I'll lose 2 very precious drawers and a door to put it in, but it will be worth it. 

Eric was very dedicated to the idea of keeping the carpeting on the stairs.  There aren't enough words in the English language to adequately express my white hot hatred of carpet.  I hate how it holds on to every stain, every smell, every hair... It's just nasty stuff.  He has been so accommodating of the changes I'm making in the house that I couldn't begrudge him that one thing, so I spent most of the day with my Bissel steam cleaner trying to get the carpet clean.  My grandkiddies haven't quite mastered the "Mammaw said don't eat upstairs" thing, so there were several stains going up the stairs where drinks and such had been spilled.  I got most of them out, mainly because that fickle bitch of a steam cleaner decided she was having a "good" day and could actually do her job.  Still, it took a few hours of doing and redoing and redoing carpets.  I'm glad to have it done and I will by God kill anyone who spills a drop on that sucker.

Tomorrow is another day of Founder's Day preparations (I've been living Founder's Day for a couple of months now), cleaning, painting and clearing out.  I have to finish painting cupboards, tiling the wall behind my stove and sink and mopping and scrubbing.  I have to iron curtains (I actually had to make sure I do, in fact, own an iron), wash windows, polish furniture and rearrange my desk to fit in the new computer that is coming for the transcription job. 

So much for my much-needed lolling about.  On Sunday, we're taking the kids to the circus, so the weekend is completely full.  I intended to commence with some quality lolling on Monday and we'll see where it goes from there.

For now, sleep calls.

See you at Founder's Day.  You'd best know I'll be wearing my tiara. 

Be particular,