At first I was really excited to be voting in Arizona. I lived in California for more than three decades. After California initiated the jungle primary where the top two candidates run against each other in the general election — it’s Democrat vs. Democrat. Guess who wins every single time?
In Arizona, there are more Republicans registered than Democrats, but the second largest party is “other.” It’s anyone’s guess who wins. It makes it very exciting to not have a foregone conclusion during an election.
But I am so sick of the ads. The signs. The emails. The texts. I’m sick of the whole thing and cannot wait for the election to be over!
Are you ready to put this election behind us, too?
I like living in Arizona. I really do. I like being across the street from 130 miles of hiking trails that will never be developed. I also like the wildlife — bobcats, mule deer, coyotes, hawks, owls and coyotes.
But what annoys me are the grocery stores. It’s 30 minutes to drive to Trader Joe’s or Costco, which we make a special trip to do. There are four grocery stores much closer. But I have to stop at two to three of them to get my shopping done.
The one that is closest is very small. It’s not a national chain, but a family-owned local store.They never carry what I need. But they do have the only kitty litter Olive the cat will use — Johnny Cat. It’s the only one of the four stores near us that carries it. They also are the only store that carries Brown Cow yogurt. (If you haven’t tried Brown Cow, please give it a try. It’s amazing.)
So I start my shopping there for cat litter and yogurt. Next I go to a major chain to get mostly everything else. Specialty items I go to the upscale store down the street from the chain store.
I don’t mind driving, but I do mind going in and out of stores for what should be one-stop shopping. I never had this problem in Palm Springs. Maybe it’s still a supply chain issue?
Are you able to do your shopping in one stop? Or do you have to go to several stores to complete your list?
I wrote 50,000 words last November in honor of NaNoWriMo. The Playgroup is a novel based on my experiences as a young mother in Palm Springs, Calif. It’s a story about testing friendships and how one person changed the quiet lives of the moms’ group.
I wrote 2,000 to 3,000 words each day and made it to my goal by Thanksgiving.
But then, I lost the manuscript. I was waiting until the new year to begin the process of editing and revising, but I blew it. I never backed it up and my laptop was erroneously deleting files. I lost my community newsletter and The Playgroup rough draft.
UGH!
I thought I had set up automatic backups to icloud — but I didn’t. Now I manually back up to a thumb drive each day.
I began rewriting the manuscript and it’s taken on a new life. My biggest change was the point of view. It was written from one character but I expanded it to the POV of four moms. I’m at about 25,000 words now, so my NaNoWriMo month will be half the words I wrote last year.
I’m currently flying to Seattle for the week to visit my mom, so I don’t think I’ll get to writing until I return home. Not an awesome start to the month, but I’ll be back!
Have you taken on a writing challenge? What is it and how did it go for you?
Our good friends, who live at the beach, returned from a trip to Italy right before our beach vacation.
I didn’t expect my friend to bring me something from Italy, but she did. She brought me hand soap that has a rich rose scent. I thought that was so thoughtful. I wouldn’t think to do that, especially trying to get gifts into my suitcase.
The soap has been sitting in it’s lovely wrapper for weeks on my bathroom counter.
I thought about putting it in the guest bathroom where guests could use it. My mom always had special soaps in our guest bathroom — carved little blue roses or scented soaps.
I thought to myself, wouldn’t my friend want me to enjoy it? My other thought was that it’s too nice to use at my own sink daily to wash my hands. It definitely belongs in the guest bath.
Also, I don’t have a soap dish to hold it. it’s a large block of soap.
A quick trip to Target solved that issue. Now I’m luxuriating in the wonderful feel and scent of rose soap imported from Italy and I think of my friend — every time I wash my hands.
Why do we have nice things for guests, but don’t feel like we should use them ourselves?
It’s hot. Hotter than at my home in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and we are at the beach. It topped 104 degrees in Santa Barbara yesterday. The only cool place to be is in the ocean.
Taking the advice of fellow blogger of Living in the Gap, Cheryl Oreglia, I bought a boogie board. She didn’t say “buy a boogie board.” She asked if we’d done anything spontaneous lately. If you don’t follow her or read her blog, you’re missing out. She has her first book under contract that will be released in 2023. You can find out more from her latest posts.
I haven’t been in the ocean for several years. First it was my knee surgery from a ski accident. That was 2018 and I was sporting the heavy ACL brace you see on NFL players. Not a good thing for the ocean. Then I worried about waves and babied my knee the next year. The following year there were the Great White Sharks.
I watched my son’s girlfriend surf for hours every day while they visited. She inspired me. I remembered the days when I’d ask the lifeguards to watch my kids while I swam out to a buoy or did a bit of boogie boarding. Then I boogie boarded with my kids as they got older.
The other day, I was hot and I wandered into the ocean knee deep to cool off. It dawned on me — my knee is okay. Also, I had cataract surgery. I don’t have to worry about losing my hard contact lenses that I wore from seventh grade to age 59! Woohoo! One drop of water on my eyes and I’d lose my contacts. It really restricted my ocean adventuring.
I decided to rent a boogie board where my son’s girlfriend rented her surfboard — at the surf shop a quarter mile down the beach from where we hang out. $15 for one to three hours. But I was at the grocery store when I saw a boogie board on sale for $15 because it’s the last weekend of summer. Tough choice.
So I did it. I got back into the ocean after four or five years and I feel like a kid again. The perfect end to our beach vacation. Even with the heat wave. Or especially BECAUSE of the heat wave.
I caught a wave! A little one, but I’m back!
Heatwave, Ella Fitzgerald.
Are you having a heat wave? How do you survive the heat?
Have you done anything spontaneous lately? What was it?
With more and more employees being called back to the office, jealousy is bubbling up in the workforce.
Companies are pleading with employees to come back to the office and are plying them with goodies like gift cards, swag and cash bonuses. I read that this is not sitting well with the employees who worked in the office throughout the pandemic.
If they are truly upset, they may “quiet quit.” I’ve seen the term before, but didn’t know what it meant. Today I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that explained it called “These Workers Were the Bosses’ Favorites. Now They Feel Jilted“by Callum Borchers.
What’s waiting for people heading back to the office after Labor Day? Jealous looks from the underappreciated colleagues who returned long ago
“Tension is a real risk with this group,” says Kristie Rogers, an associate professor of management at Marquette University. “If we’re not paying attention to those who have been around a while, making sure that their efforts were valued and continue to be valued, there could be some division that undermines the purpose of bringing people back in the first place.”
She adds workers who believe their in-person contributions are not sufficiently rewarded may quit or “quiet quit,” staying in a job but doing only the bare minimum.
Keeping everyone satisfied is especially difficult since many workers feel empowered to resist office callbacks and expect new perks in exchange for showing up. Those who’ve long been working in person can hardly be blamed for resenting the incentives—why weren’t they offered sooner?—even though the benefits are available to all.
It sounds like a mess to me. Jealousy in the workplace is awful. I should know. I was jealous in my 20s. I found out that a new hire was making much more than what I was paid. Yet, I had experience, a college degree and more responsibility. I didn’t “quiet quit.” I QUIT!
Then, I was on the other side. When I worked with my husband in financial services, I would leave earlier than others to pick up our kids from school and get them to swim practice. I was on the receiving end of dirty looks. But it was the deal we had.
Have you ever experienced jealousy at work?
What are your thoughts about quiet quitting? Have you ever worked with someone who did the bare minimum?
What do you think about working remotely versus showing up in the office?
We had only been in the Vrbo for two hours when we lost one key. Fortunately, we started with two keys in the lockbox.
The key got lost during unpacking. I had placed the key on top of the dresser. My husband complained about things I was stacking on the dresser while finding a home for them. I was sure he had knocked the key off onto the floor or behind the dresser while he moved some of my stuff.
I was so upset. We were supposed to go to our friends’ house for dinner and we were thirty minutes late — before we realized the key was missing.
We looked in the drawers, under the dresser, under the bed, in the kitchen and bathroom. I texted my son that we had lost one key already. There was one in the lockbox and to please keep the one remaining key there when he arrived later that night. I didn’t want to lose both.
After a delicious dinner of chicken mole with our friends in their backyard, I came home and continued the search.
I finally found the key! My husband had knocked the key off the dresser just as I suspected. He managed to land the key in my dresser drawer — into my white shorts back pocket! Husbands!
What has your wife, husband or friend done that truly amazed you — good or bad?
