From the Mind of the Dawnie

Once again, we’re trotting out Ye Olde End Of Year Survey here.  This has got to be the third or fourth year I’ve done this (possibly the fifth?  I’m too lazy to go back and check).  It gets a little silly in some places, but it’s not all bad.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Moved in with a boy.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I have no idea if I had any (and I’m not going back to check).  I don’t know if I’ll make any resolutions per se for next year, but overall I’d like to get back to eating a bit better and find something resembling a regular workout routine again.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes - Stella, Mason and Ben were all welcomed into the world by friends of mine this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nope - I was fortunate to have a zero funeral count this year.

5. What countries did you visit?
Nothing outside the US this year - I didn’t even make it to Canada.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A job that doesn’t make me want to poke my eyes out on a regular basis, although I’m not holding my breath on this one (although longer-term plans to fix this are in place).

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 27 - the day I moved across the country
July 6 - the day I finished my first Half-Ironman
September 30 - the day I tweaked my foot but good (it’s better, but still gets angry if I do a lot of walking and I’m still not back to running on it)
November 27 - the first Thanksgiving I didn’t go home for

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Finishing the half-ironman

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not dealing with various stress and frustrations better.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
While I had a record number of colds and such this year and suffered from the Gimpy Foot, I wasn’t the victim of anything serious.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
The new spinning wheel.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Everyone who registered to vote this year and everyone who got out and voted in the election.  It was great to see such engagement and involvement around all of that.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Let’s not worry about that, eh?  Let’s move into next year on a positive and happy note and move right on.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Paying down debt and the new car.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Moving and the new job, going back to school, heading home for Christmas.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
I have no idea - there’s not really one that’s standing out in my mind right now.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?  about the same
b) thinner or fatter?  fatter, sadly
c) richer or poorer? a wee bit richer, I think

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Relaxing and just being happy.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worrying.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Flew home to Michigan with The Boy to spend the holiday with my family, then flew to New Jersey to spend the last bit of Hanukkah with The Boy’s family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Yup.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
I’m going to have to go with So You Think You Can Dance - I don’t know why I never watched it until this year.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Nah - I have better things to spend my energy on than active dislike.

24. What was the best book you read?
Lamb by Christopher Moore

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
David Cook - thank you, American Idol

26. What did you want and get?
A new job, a new car, a spinning wheel and a plan

27. What did you want and not get?
Another new job, a large windfall of cash (but isn’t that always true for everyone?)

28. What was your favorite movie of this year?
Wall-E, hands down.  (Also, I changed the wording of the question from “film” to “movie” because, really, who watches “films”?  No one I hang out with, that’s for sure.)

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Man, this was so long ago it was practically last year.  I turned 28 and spent it in Seattle where I bought a car, found an apartment, and went to a Seattle Thunderbirds (hockey) game.  It was busy.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A job I actually enjoy.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
“I can wear jeans to work!  Woohoo!”

32. What kept you sane?
The Boy, for which he should get an award because that was certainly no easy task this year.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Obama.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
The election in general.

35. Who did you miss?
Everyone in Chicago.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
I met a lot of awesome new people this year - I can’t really just pick one.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Even if things aren’t perfect, they’re a lot more enjoyable if you just relax and chill the fuck out.  Enjoy the good things that are happening now, and don’t worry about the bad things that might happen.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Do I have to?  I always hate this question, so I’m going to pass.  Besides, this year was way too big to sum up in a single song lyric.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a gift for my parents that I had pretty much given up on being able to get my hands on.  It brought my total spending to a bit more than I wanted to spend, so I asked my brother if he wanted to split it with me (which he was all over, since he hadn’t even thought about starting his shopping yet), and we agreed that I’d have it shipped to him and he’d take care of wrapping it and bringing it to my parents’ house for Christmas.  Because I am a genius, I had the item shipped to my house when I ordered it which meant I’d have to ship it back to my brother.  Not a problem - there were a couple of weeks until Christmas and thusly plenty of time.  When it arrived, I stuck a new label on the box, took it to the post office, paid and arm and a leg to ship it (it was oversized and, man, that is not cheap) and sent it off to my brother in Michigan.  I got a tracking number for it, I e-mailed him to let him know it was coming, and then I forgot all about it.

A week or so later, I was cleaning out old receipts from my pocket.  I hadn’t heard anything from my brother, so I assumed he’d gotten it OK and tossed the receipt.  The receipt that had the tracking number on it.  Since clearly I wouldn’t need it.

Y’all see where this is going, right?  Monday evening I got a panicked call from my brother because he’d finally gotten around to checking his apartment complex’s leasing office for the package and it wasn’t there.  I knew I’d tossed out the receipt and tracking number, but I looked for it anyway.  Nothing.  I’d sent it priority nearly two weeks ago, so I knew it had to be there and I started worrying that someone had swiped it from the leasing office.  I asked him if the office had a package log he could check and figured it would be there when he checked it.  It was just hiding.  I poked around on the Post Office web site to see if there was any way to recover a tracking number, but it was no help.  I had all the information about the package except the tracking number (date sent, post office it was sent from, destination) so I figured there must be a way to find that information, but there was nothing on the Post Office’s web site that gave me any hope it was actually going to happen.  I put off calling them about it since I figured the package was about to turn up and odds were good that it was going to be a painful phone call.  Best to avoid it if I could.

Shortly after arriving at my parents’ house on Tuesday afternoon (after a trip full of on-time flights!  YAY!) I got a text message from my brother stating that it was not, in fact, hiding in the leasing office.  Either someone had made off with it (which they assured him was impossible) or it was lost in transit somewhere.  Sadly, without the tracking number, I had no way to find out where it was trapped and/or seen last.  Crap.  I sucked it up and called the post office.

After managing to navigate the voice prompts to get an actual person on the phone (a process that involved hitting zero repeatedly and swearing), I was met with exactly what I was afraid of: no help whatsoever.  Shit.  Without the tracking number (which I’d had and had thrown away) I couldn’t do anything except bang my head against the wall and figure out what to do. I was amazed the post office couldn’t help me.  The town that my brother lives in is not a big one.  Surely they could run a search and find the one package coming there from Issaquah and see what happened to it (or if it even made it this far).  As I was expressing this, my dad started picking on the small-town postal staff, stating that since it was a big package it was probably sitting in the back of the post office as no one felt like delivering it in the snow.  (”You want to take that one out with you, Fred?”  “Nah, I’ll get it later…”)  I texted my brother asking him to check the post office for the package.  I had absolutely no hope that it would be there, but at this point it certainly couldn’t hurt.

Well, what do you know, not only was the package there but it had been so the entire time.  It does boil down to the small-town post office staff, surprisingly enough.  What happened was this: They tried to deliver it when it came in a week ago, but in addition to my brother not being home there was no one at the leasing office which gave them no one to leave the package with.  The carrier took it back to the post office, but never went back to my brother’s apartment to leave him a delivery attempt notice for the package.  So he had absolutely no idea they’d tried to deliver it and the leasing office didn’t have it.  On top of that, they never went back in the following days to either make a redelivery attempt or actually leave him a notice.  The package just sat at the post office, waiting for him to come pick it up despite the fact that he had no idea it was there.  (Happily, it apparently never occurred to them to send it back to me, which, PRAISE JEEBUS because that would have been supremely frustrating and made it impossible to get it back to Michigan in time for Christmas unless I took it on the plane with me.  Which was what this whole adventure was trying to avoid.)

To their credit, they did apologize to him and take all of the blame for the snafu.  Really, at this point, I’m just happy to know where the package is and not be worried that it’s aimlessly floating around the postal system.  And I’m sure my brother is happy to not have more last-minute shopping added to his to-do list.  (He’s moving this weekend, so between that and Christms he’s a wee bit busy.)  Now I can fully relax and just enjoy being home for the holiday.

Somehow, the snow is still falling down here in Seattle.  The past four days (during which I’ve barely left the house and OH MY GOOD LORD is it getting to me) have seen the coldest and snowiest weather that Seattle’s had in 20 or so years.  The Boy’s theory is that Chicago missed me and knew I’d be missing the snow and so it sent some over this way.  On one hand, I am a big fan of it, but I’m starting to get a little cabin fever-y.  Also, I’d be a lot more tolerant of this weather if it was the weekend after I got back from my Christmas travels instead of the weekend before.  Nature’s got about 30 hours to sort itself out before my plane is supposed to take off, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.  I suppose we shall see.

Speaking of the airport, the last time I was at SeaTac I spied this in the bathroom stall:

The coat hook on one side of the stall…

…and the one on the other

Please, please, please work out whatever hissy fit you’re currently having by Monday so I can actually fly home for Christmas.  Yes, I’m loving this winter weather, but I will most certainly not be a fan of it if I end up trapped on the wrong side of the country for Christmas.

Thanks & Kisses -

-Dawn

P.S. At least the snow is really pretty when you live in the remnants of a pine forest:

Having lived in the midwest my entire life, I’m not really used to getting snow days.  I’m used to wishing we had one and praying for snow and then being ultimately disappointed as the plows make it through and clear everything out by the morning rush hour, obligating everyone to head to work or school or whatever.  To get a snow day in the midwest, you need to pray for a foot of ice and snow to fall out of the sky at 5:30 a.m. so that there’s no time for it to be cleared.

In Seattle, though, apparently you just need to wish for 6 inches of snow and that’ll be enough to effectively shut things down.  I knew the roads would be bad yesterday due to the lack of plows and salt trucks, but what I didn’t expect was that they’d be bad enough that we wouldn’t get mail.  Yup, that’s right - there was no mail delivery yesterday.  I couldn’t believe it.  I’ve seen some pretty nasty weather of various types, but I can’t ever recall a day where I just didn’t get mail.  Coming from Chicago where 6 inches of snow is barely enough to make anyone blink, this just blew my mind.

Today things are a little better.  We didn’t get any extra snow, so we did get mail today, but I’m still not planning on driving anywhere anytime soon (unless it’s a life or death situation).  Which means we’re still pretty much stuck in the house.  Tonight we walked down to a nearby shopping center to get pizza for dinner and swing by the grocery store for cookie-making supplies.  (If I’m going to be trapped in the house all weekend, I’m doing some baking.)  It was about a 4 mile round trip, but it was totally worth it.  We’ve got the perfect amount of snow to cover everything and be pretty, and since no one else was out it was quiet and peaceful.  It’s cold out (around 25) but there’s no wind so it’s perfectly pleasant to go outside for a walk.

We’re supposed to get some really nasty weather over the weekend - more snow, freezing rain, and gale force winds (seriously - the warnings are saying things like 50-70 mph), which makes me especially glad we took the big trek to the pizza place tonight (although my gimpy foot, which was starting to feel almost normal again, is ANGRY after the four miles of walking) since it looks like we may be holed up for a couple more days.  At this point, I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that it clears up enough to let us make our flight out on Monday night.