Kingfisher Cove

Here and Gone and Now Underway

I’ve been incredibly lame about blogging this past week – but today I’m frustrated (and weepy*) enough that I think it’s finally time to have a good vent. What an exasperating day, and it’s not over yet. Man! I haven’t felt this all-over grumpy since I don’t know when!

It started with a TWO-F***ING-HOUR commute this morning to work, and I am not exaggerating. All it takes is one buffoon on the Alaskan Way Viaduct and everything goes to shit. This morning’s shitty buffoon was a disabled garbage truck that blocked a lane (which meant that only one lane was clear for the 60,000 vehicles heading into Seattle) and it hosed up traffic for miles upon miles. I was parked in a sea of semis (and other vehicles, but those semis were what I especially noticed since I couldn’t peer around or beyond them because we were PARKED. Sometimes CRAWLING INCHES. But mostly PARKED). I left the house shortly after 7:00 a.m. and finally, FINALLY arrived at my office just before 9:00 a.m. Two hours to travel 16 miles.

Pretty much sat down at my desk loaded for bear.

And of course, my plate was full. And full of frustrating tasks, like trying to hunt down specific information on a public agency website. I won’t even go into the idiotic detail of what a head-banging experience that has been – actually all week long. An illogical maze of a website to try to navigate, search functions that don’t function, no phone numbers posted but the quintessential email form that hiccups and burps and spits out RED ERROR MESSAGES because who knows why? And of course no responses from those emails-into-the-abyss. But THEN…I scored a random phone number that I thought just maybe would eventually get me to the RIGHT person to possibly get my information!

I hate phones. I fill with dread when I know I have to deal with people over the phone. I know exactly what to expect, and what I expect always comes to fruition. It’s being transferred over and over and over again; it’s repeating my story/request over and over and over again; it’s leaving voice messages and never hearing back; it’s being cut off in the midst of one of the gazillion transfers. And it’s inevitable: When I first talk to “Tammy,” she transfers me to “Frank,” who then transfers me to “Glen,” who then says to me, “You know? I’m going to transfer you to Tammy because she’ll have the information.”

Utter hell.

~~~~~

So, the *weepy part. Today Nate’s ship left for their 6-month deployment. All morning, between those stupid phone calls and search fails, I kept thinking about him, wondering if they were underway yet. And wouldn’t you know? While I was on the phone in the midst of one those gazillion transfers and had finally connected with a real human, my iPhone rang, and it was Nate calling me. I couldn’t take the call.

Afterward, I called him back and got his voice mail. You can probably imagine that I was bereft. One more thing on my day’s shitty plate (that also included having to make coffee every time I went in to fill my cup because people kept leaving empty coffee pumps for me). Loaded for bear. Man, I wanted to kick something, or someone!

And then…he called. He had about 5 minutes before the order to shut down their cell phones. He was excited, full of adventure! FINALLY – after being in the Navy for 2-1/2 years, he was doing what he’d signed up for. To see the world. And now, he’s on his way.

So, my day was made having that opportunity to talk to him, brief as it was (and thinking for some time that I wasn’t going to be able to). Sailing the ocean blue.

~~~~~

To catch up, what a whirlwind week it was that Nate was home over Thanksgiving. I did see more of him later in the week, and we had our traditional night of sushi the night before Turkey Day. He spent the holiday with his dad’s family (we went to John’s folks’) and then on Saturday we all met up with my family at Chandler’s Crabhouse in Seattle. (Yum!)

A few highlights:

That’s his crab steamer basket (the crab was on the 2nd level – 1/2 a Dungeness and a King Crab leg).

The whole fam-damily at Chandlers.

~~~~~

Helen came on Friday and we didn’t make soap! We did plan to, but we got a relatively late start and just had too much catching up to do. Drank Crantinis and talked our lips off. And I completely forgot to take a single picture!

I also have to admit (ahem) that one of the reasons I’ve been so absent here is because I am 100% addicted to “True Blood.” I’m currently watching Season 3 of the DVDs and loving it! I’m really not into the vampire craze (I refuse to read the books or watch the movies of the Twilight series because the author is such a horrendous writer, which I know after reading “The Host.” I agree with Stephen King: “Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength, and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.”). But this is different – well written, amazingly acted, and the characters really crawl into your, er, heart. It’s also very gritty and graphic. I love Anna Paquin! (Remember her as a little girl in “The Piano?”)

~~~~~

Really not in the mood to put up the Christmas tree this year. I may put out a few decorations and call it good. But, I’m not sure when that will be since we’re heading to Harstine this weekend.

Eh.

There was evidence when I got home from work tonight that the Navy Kid had made another pit stop. Avocados (yuk) that I’d bought for him eaten, a shower taken, some leftover spaghetti consumed. I haven’t laid eyes on him since Friday when he made his first pit stop and then vamoosed. Maybe he just doesn’t want me to take anymore pictures of him.

Yeah, I know.

It sort of blows, though.

I reckon in the scheme of things, I was pretty much the same way at 25. I loved-loved-loved being with my friends! It was a different scenario for me at the time, but independence was certainly my thing. I’d lived on my own and supported myself for 7 years by then! As a daughter, I was close to my mother and I did really enjoy her company — in relative doses. Grown sons are a totally different animal. (I do know he adores me, though. Well, in the scheme of things).

~~~~~

Back to work today after a 4-day weekend and it was tough driving into work in the dark, rainy, windy butt-crack hour (have I mentioned that I am NOT a morning person?) I have so enjoyed sleeping in (somewhat), hanging out, playing with glass, and tending to chores on my own time frame. Work was fine, though. Lately, it’s just been the commute that has been so horrendous. (I’ve been lovin’ writing articles for the new edition of our company’s newsletter! I’m not Speedy Gonzales about it because I’m pretty persnickety, but it’s a pleasure and I get to pretend that I’m the print journalist I might have been had I completed my college degree. I take this assignment very seriously!)

~~~~~

I have ordered more of my wine stopper supplies (I didn’t order a bunch to begin with because I wasn’t sure if these would turn out to be something that would be worthwhile), but while waiting for my order, I couldn’t help but make a few more of the glass baubles.

 

They’re ready to go once those stoppers arrive! And…they are so FUN! (I know I’ve mentioned that before). They’re also rather expensive to make because the stopper itself is pretty pricey. Not to mention the glass and the kiln time. (Oh, and labor…) So, we’ll see if they offset some of my supply cost. They are certainly “worthwhile” in terms of pleasure. But at some point they also need to be “worthwhile” in a business sense. It would sure be nice if I could purchase my supplies wholesale instead of retail.

If you know of anybody who might enjoy such a thing, maybe you could recommend my site? (Heh heh, all two of you who read my blog anymore!)

Two more days and then another 4-day weekend! (I’ll pay for this, because I don’t get holiday compensation). Looking forward to Thanksgiving at John’s folks’ and also seeing my Oregon BFF, Helen, on Friday when we make our traditional soap/do some shopping/drink fun shit/and talk our lips off. Then on Saturday meeting up with MY family (including that elusive sailor) at Chandler’s Crab House in Seattle!

Not Much Boy, But Lots of Glass

My social butterfly has pretty much been MIA ever since Thursday night, with one brief pit stop to shower and shave before heading out to butterfly again.

It’s fine — I expected that, and originally John and I had considered going to Harstine for the weekend. But the forecast called for snow (which ended up not materializing here) so we changed our minds and opted to stay home. It’s still been very cold, and it would have been a cooped-up weekend in that camping trailer. Old-fart bodies get stiff when that happens.

So…I’ve been traversing all of Nate’s strewn shit throughout his room, aka my glass studio (the tidy ways of the Navy do not follow the sailor home), and creating STUFF! Behold, wine bottle stoppers!

 

Ever buy a bottle of wine just for it’s name? (I have no idea if this is decent stuff. Yet).

Anyway, this was sort of an experiment and now it’s opened up some avenues in my mind and there is currently quite a variety of designs cooking in the kiln (with more ready to go). I like the transparent glass “baubles” the best. Makes me think of beach glass. I’m making several more of those in various color combos. It’s such a lot of FUN!!! I make them double-sided (I’ve seen some that are just single-sided and I think they look funny). But they don’t take tons of time and there are so many possibilities! I have more supplies on the way, too.

John ordered himself a Kindle Fire which arrived this week and it’s so cool! It really is much like a smaller iPad in many ways. Impressive quality for the price. Movies look like HD! John’s been playing some adventure games on it, too.

My Kid. He is Home.

Over the moon! It’s hard to believe he’s been a sailor for 2-1/2 years already. And during those 2-1/2 years, I’ve only actually seen him for a handful of days, cumulatively. It was so wonderful this morning to walk to the baggage claim area at the airport and see his grinning face. And much more wonderful to experience his manly, muscle-bound, crushing mom-hug. (Yes, while tears streamed down my face and I could barely talk through the sobs!)  No way was I going to do the hurry-up-and-load thing at the passenger drop-off/pickup area while the grating recorded woman’s voice  bellowed at me over and over again to hurry the hell up and move away from the curb. I required lingering hugs!

And finally, a chance to spend hours chatting at the dining table, catching up, and cracking up. (Nate’s sense of humor has always had a way of transforming me into some basal human form emitting duck sounds).

Oh, the stories! And a little insight into his upcoming 6-month deployment (he leaves on the 29th of this month). Sounds like they’ll be in the Philippines over Christmas. After that he’s not sure, but the possibilities include Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Bahrain…

He was out to sea for 19 days in September. He saw sharks! And electrified jelly fish. And an interesting tidbit: he heard dolphins conversing with the ship’s sonar. He said that was pretty cool. Also, a little creepy. 

He seems older. More mature. A little more laid back. I love that he doesn’t have a buzz cut — he’s got himself a nice, tidy style goin’ on (still within military regs, but it’s nice that he doesn’t look like “Mr. Clean”). No additional tattoos, either, which sort of surprises me (and pleases me, although I wonder what he’ll come back with after his deployment and all those ports of call…)

Had a home-cooked steak dinner tonight, and now finally he’s off to visit friends. It’s a little different for him this leave because all of his buddies are working or in school, unlike Christmas breaks when many of them had time off.

Nate brought me a gift! These are so awesome, and so special — Kingfisher earrings! (Not a very good picture, but you can sort of get the idea).

Dark

It is a little easier to roll my ass out of bed in the mornings when it’s not pitch dark out and feels like it might as well be midnight (however, it won’t be long and the pitch dark will be back again, that infuriating creature). I just think it’s unnatural to have to get out of bed when it’s still dark. Ugh. November. My least favorite month of the whole year, and here we are again.

OK, whiney voice: Sunset at 4:30 p.m.? I’m thinking Earth needs to be bitch-slapped. (Why does it have to tilt anyway?)

I remember as a kid, I liked the early dark evenings. There was something cozy and comforting about seeing our reflections in the window as my brother and I ate our dinner. Adulthood? Not so much. Work gets the best hours of the day and I have to miss them all. Day-jail.

No, I don’t dislike my job, and I’m very grateful to have one (even if there are no benefits or paid holidays).

But still. I’m so weary of the rat race.

~~~

It’s election day. Nothing especially exciting on the ballot this time, but I voted anyway. Tossed my mail-in ballot on a stack of ‘em in the office mailroom. In a year we’ll be voting for president again. It’s like presidents serve about two years and then it’s campaign season already. (And as far as the republicans go, January 21, 2009 was their campaign season kick-off. “Let’s shut this country down so Obama will take the blame and the idiots will vote for us.”) (Good luck with that).

I swear the GOP candidates make me think of an SNL skit. Parody. The Onion. Head-shaking goonery. Alternate universes. Has there ever before been such a line-up of batshit crazy?

Oh, and did you hear Herman Cain actually has a jobs plan? “You want a job, right?”

Hello, Friday, Glad to See Ya

This week wasn’t as horrendous as last week was, with the viaduct closure and the godawful-from-hell work commute day after day after day (and it  progressively worsened as that week continued until it was beyond the pale)… but it’s still a big relief to embrace Friday night. And truth be known, the new bypass of the viaduct (after they tore down the southern section last week) is a major pain in the ass. Too much merging, which brings on the asshats who wait until that very last minute to cut in front of everyone else – which hoses up the entire works. Makes me despise humanity.

All 7 billion of us. <<<---Must click and read!

The plan was to head to Harstine this weekend, but the weather is supposed to suck. (Just wait. We’ll wake up tomorrow morning and it’ll be SUNNY…) But, there are things to tend to around here, including at least starting to ream out my glass studio/Nate’s bedroom so that he will be able to have a path to his bed and possibly stow a bag (not that I expect he’ll be here much). (And so therefore I’m not going to make a HUGE effort to tidy that room!) It’s pretty bad, though…

Talked to him the other night and some plans are in place. He’ll be spending Thanksgiving Day with his dad’s family — which I pretty much expected since he always used to do that before he joined the Navy. It’ll be a good opportunity for him to see his entire family on that side, all together. I’m bummed, because he won’t be here for Christmas this year so I don’t “get” a holiday with him. He’ll be leaving on a 6-month deployment November 29th and won’t return to the States until May or June. I’ll probably rarely (if ever) hear from him during that time. Not having him home for Christmas is going to be really tough for me. First time ever. What’s Christmas without your kid?

BUT, we’ll be having a get-together for dinner with our family at some point – not exactly sure when right now (need to time it with Dad’s dialysis, figure out where, what, etc.) Probably here at our house, I’m thinking! Nate wants “Pacific Northwest Food.” You know, like salmon, steamers. Crab would be good, too! (Hmm.) Maybe we should all go to the Crab Pot or Chandlers in Seattle! There’s an idea!