Mewsings, Feline and Other...: My state of mind Winter 2010, a recycled favorite post

Ok, do any of you remember that about 6 weeks ago...I was on vacation? Finally, I am getting around to posting notes and photos about my Christmas in Oregon...and you will have to bear with me if you read on, as I am under the influence of a "Snowball Martini"... mine was with Ketel One Citroen Vodka, a splash of Martini & Rossi Extra Dry Vermouth and a huge snowball...garnished with lemon zest.

Ok, last things first..

I read today, on a fellow bloggers blog,

THE COSMOLOGY OF REYA

about the very seasonal Vodka Snow Martinis that she and some friends concocted, and it led to a trip to the ABC store (those in other states may not know about the "package" stores that law requires in some states) and to Safeway to get a lemon (forgot the zester, though).

I have had 4 sessions with my therapist, and already my boss says she sees a positive change in me. With my therapists help, I have come to the realization that being a "veterinary nurse " is my calling, not only at work, but in my "private" life, too and that affects my interpretation of others behavior. It also may explain why sometimes I feel like I don't have any "down time". She told me of a quote from Confucious, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life" and that explained a lot to me, too.

While I may work with people who do not want to make this their career, realizing this helps me look at things that stress me out from a different perspective, and that actually lessens my stress by about 80%...really. I have a friend who is an palliative care nurse and those words have already helped her look at her stressors differently.

My boss said she sees, on a scale of 1 to 10, an 8 in terms of my "happiness factor" at work; my therapist says if I only have 3 things on my list of aggravating experiences during a week, that something good is happening, and while I never seem to get as much accomplished during a day that I hope for...I am happier! Am I ready to marry myself...not yet.

Anyway, back to Oregon vacation-time, December 21 thru January 1. I had a hell of a time getting out of town. The DC Metro area had it's first big snowfall of the season, 22" and when I called to reserve a taxi for the ride to the airport Monday morning, I got told, 3 X, that they weren't taking fares until noon, or to call back 2 hours before I needed to leave home!

Once again, friends came to my rescue! My petsitters husband drove me to another friends (90 minute round trip) late Sunday night, where I spent the night on an aerobed, she made me dinner, as I hadn't eaten since I had been shoveling snow all day in hopes that I could make it up the hill and out of my housing development--that didn't happen!

I shoveled 2 days, nary a snowplow in sight, took a Tramadol and 3 Advil that night so I wouldn't be "stove up" on the aeroplane the next day and a cabbie friend of hers (from Minnesota--the land of big snows!) drove me to the airport Monday morning, where I got out of town but then managed to get stranded in San Francisco for 7 hours and considered myself fortunate as it was obvious that many people had spent the night, maybe many nights, there waiting for a connecting flight!

But I arrrived in Orygun about 10pm Monday night and had a nice 2 weeks there and somehow, problems at the beginning of a vacation are better than at the end...

I so wished I would have had about a month off, so I could have met fellow Oregon bloggers, but you probably know how one kind of lets family commandeer your time when you are with them, so I didn't get in visits with them, but maybe on my next visit I can try again.

I did enjoy my visit though...got at least a full 8 hours of sleep in (something I only get at home, on the weekends) and got to play on the computer a lot, though I overheard my mom saying "Well, I don't want an 80th birthday party if all she is going to do is be on the computer"...sigh. My therapist said, wouldn't it have been nice if my mom could have come to me and said "I have so been looking forward to your visit, and it seems like I don't see enough of you" and if I could have said "Mom, I overheard you saying that you aren't seeing enough of me, let's go shopping or out to eat or for a walk..." Yep, that would have been nice, but as it was, we both ended up miffed at each other...

I shopped, mom fixed some of my favorite things-Portuguese Piri Piri chicken and cheesecake. I took out a few bottles of Casal Garcia Vino Verde, my mom's favorite Portuguese wine. We ate out often, breakfast and lunch and dinner...one experience out of this world at Aja, a superb Pan-Asian Restaurant owned by a couple who met in Hawaii while working in a restaurant there, AJA (Named after a Steely Dan Album...).

Kudos to you who know what a Steely Dan is...that was one of the trivia questions at Mike and I's wedding fest, including what was the original name of the band, Buffalo Springfield?

I thought maybe when I got back home, that I would feel that post-vacation depression, but that didn't happen and I think it is because I have a whole year ahead of me to "make things right" for me and that's an adventure...that is how I explained it to my therapist...

And for you that follow my other blog (my cats blog)
CURLZ AND SWIRLZ, LIFE WITH CORNISH REX CATS
you know that there are new kittens to keep me entertained and that feels right, too. Before they arrived, I found myself thinking I wasn't too excited about their arrival, but realized that those feelings were due to some of the health issues the last litter had--upper respiratory infection in a kitten I had sold that infected the whole cat family of this wonderful couple who already have one cat from me.

The kittens are a week old now and doing great and if you'd like to see photos...
WARM KITTEN WEDNESDAY

Here's some of my vacation photos, for your viewing pleasure...

Photo for Mom (the bird silhouette on the window behind me is so birds don't fly into the window)