Amy's Place

Spring is here!!!

2010-04-15T20:30:00.007-04:00

I have always loved summer the best of all the seasons - there is nothing better then sitting by the pool or by the ocean with a slow summer breeze and a trashy novel. But I have to say that spring is a close second. Lately I have been enjoying the rebirth and newness of spring, the sights of the trees that seem to go from bare empty branches to hatching a few small buds to full green leaves in what seems like a day or two. Or the trees and bushes that burst out in color, pink and white buds or bright purple flowers appearing in celebration of the warmer weather. Every day as I drive to work I am distracted by the sight of these trees and bushes exploding with more color. They will soon dissipate, all the spring flowers will subside as well, so this period is short but it is a lovely and beautiful time. It does open up to summer, which is also a time of color, and fun, but the change from winter to spring can’t be beat.

2010-03-30T20:02:00.000-04:00

check out my new header!!! can't beat that!! love the beach. Big thanks to cutest blog on the block for all the freebies to make this look nice.

truchas new mexico

2010-03-20T22:00:00.001-04:00

2010-03-20T21:23:00.004-04:00

SPRING!! ah, yes. some would identify those beautiful flowers that are pushing their way up through the dirt that i see on my walks in the neighborhood, or the smell of the outdoor grills getting fired up as the first sign of spring. some would say that the beautiful young woman in the apartment building next door who was lying out in shorts and a t-shirt, on a blanket, reading her book,enjoying the warm sun, or the masses of people wandering around down town just enjoying the weather as the first day of spring. not me, for me the first sign of spring is hanging out my laundry. i love it! haven't had the laundry out since late fall. sigh, such a small thing but it brings so much pleasure. as i was hanging all my stuff out there it felt so good, so warm, so clean. i am happy to see spring!

Goober at his best!

2010-03-20T15:34:00.002-04:00

2010-03-18T21:34:00.002-04:00

so gol darn it, iowa hawkeyes didn't make the ncaa tourney. is it too much to ask to have a good football AND a basketball season. is that too much to expect??

2010-03-14T00:15:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I see my life as a series of one lost thing after another. Always looking for something I’ve misplaced, keys, credit cards, glasses, check book, id, cell phone. The other day I remember thinking that, aha! Here is a time that I am not in the process of looking or thinking about something I’ve lost. But it didn’t last long, a day or so after that I couldn’t find my sun glasses.

Here is what I’ve learned about lost things. Sometimes they are lost forever but more often they are lost for a period of time - sometimes a short time, sometimes longer. I have had things show up years after i gave up looking for them, really. Ok maybe I exaggerate but I swear it was over a year.

Here is another thing I have learned about lost things, sometimes they are hiding, not lost. How many times have I found something in a place that I looked several times without seeing it. Other women will understand this one, how many times have we searched our purses over and over and over and then the 15th, 50th, 100th time it’s there.

There is a system to my lost and find. First it sits in my head for a while, not quite yet lost, just not found. Then I acknowledge it is misplaced or not where it should be, then I begin the search. I check my house (bedroom, living room, home office, usually where ever I remember seeing/using it last). Then a quick search of the car and work cubicle. Then a more detailed search at home, underneath things (couches, beds, papers), a more detailed search of the car, under seats, bagging up all the thrown away paper, coffee cups, other trash to make sure it hasn't been hidden and the same at work. If after all this, which can take up to a week or more, I haven’t found whatever I’ve lost, depending on how important the item is, I try to relax for a while, with the theory that when I stop looking it will turn up. Which by the way, has happened more often then not. At the point I actually acknowledge to myself that it is really truly lost, it will show up. Case in point, lost my debit card, waited and looked for weeks. Was at the bank drive up, actually asked the teller to give me another application for a new card because by god it must be really truly lost when in the corner of my eye I caught sight of something, right color, could it be, yes, in my car under some paper or other debris I had not thrown out yet, my debit card. And of course I can't tell you how many times I had checked the car already. One timeI couldn't find another ID, waited for weeks just looking and "keeping an eye out" for it, looked all over the house. I had been out of town for business and called both the hotel where I stayed and the car rental company with no luck. Finally after a few weeks I went to the office manager to get a new ID, paid my $5 for the new ID, and later that same afternoon she came to me saying the original one had arrived in the mail.

And one of my most repeated statements is “I just had it" or"I just saw it" or "it was just here.”

And the sunglasses I mentioned at the beginning of this? Found them, on the shelf behind. Earlier that day I had acknowledged to myself after several days, ok, maybe they are really lost and sent around an email at work asking if anyone had seen them.

2010-02-13T12:32:00.003-05:00

He who hesitates is lunch. now that's deep. can be seen, or could be seen, as graffiti on wall of joe's bar bathroom, Iowa City. I think as i decide to continue this blog i will post items/thoughts from different parts of my life, divide my life into sections. this section is about working at joe's bar, dropping out of school and working as a waitress at a jock/student bar in iowa city. a significant time in my life, no sarcasm, during which i learned several things, some life lessons (i firmly believe that there are things that are important to know about life, lessons which you can use as you age and face decisions here and there), some just good things to know.

i worked at joe's for @ 9 + months, actually more if you include the time i worked part time after i returned to school, for every shift at some time. so one lesson i learned is that at all times of the day someone can be drunk. i saw people who had not yet sobered up or were still drinking or had just started again at 9 am when i worked the 9-5 shift. there was always someone drunk or getting there at any time.

for the day shift i had to work lunch. and let's be honest, i was not a great waitress. when i was there i had the dubious honor of being the only waitress who lost a lunch reciept - w/o going into details we took lunch orders, took the payment, turned in the orders and the $$ collected and then the rest was ours as tips. i lost a receipt, apparently no one had before me and i will be no one did after me. and i just was not happy/cheerful/sweet enough to get the tips, not that i am a mean person but not a natural smiler. my fellow waitresses did much better. oh well.

met john the pin ball guy there, he was one of the guys who would come in and manage the pin ball machines. a crush i admit. he had a great story about his love of his life i will tell someday.

when my good friend mike and i worked together we did have fun goofing off. sometimes when the beer guy would deliver the beer he would buy a round for everyone in the bar. good old mike would grab a few and hide them for himself in the corners. more about mike in other posts.

other memories about joe's - good juke box with both tony bennet ("i wanna be around...") and frank sinatra. late at night someone would always play "my way".

and i guess the most important lesson from joe's is that after working there for a few bucks an hour and tips is that i needed a degree, any degree, to avoid having to do this for a living. so i returned to school. don't regret the time, all life lessons, even hard ones, are important. and of course the wisdom of the graffiti/heading of this post goes w/o saying. :)

Self discoveries...who am i?

2009-07-04T20:14:00.001-04:00

what i have discovered about myself recently, and whether this is a "duh moment" or a "light bulb" moment has yet to be determined, is that i really am a loner. or maybe another way to say this, loner sounds like how you would describe a serial killer, is that i don't mind, in fact enjoy spending my time alone. it used to be that i would seek out others and seek out activities but would not be upset if i had to be alone. but as i get older it seems i not only don't seek out others but avoid it. the weekend is not enough time for me to be by myself. i keep myself busy, kind of, recently doing some gardening, walker, reading, watching tv and playing with this dang computer, and the weekend just flies by. i make myself get up and out sometimes, sometimes just so i won't get tooooooo loner-ish, but i am happy to come home and sit with my cat. as i look back on my life i realize that this has not always been true, or that is, i was more social, but that even then it was ok for me to not be very active. i think also, this is about not letting allowing people get too close, in past relationships both romantic and not i see patterns of pulling away when more and more demands are made on my time. am i over analyzing this, maybe making excuses for my single status. not sure, just thinking.