Auctioneer

We had a benefit at work and I was asked to volunteer as their auctioneer. It was pretty intimidating but also very exciting. We ended up raising $136k for a great local charity, Rainier Scholars.

I had to get people to vote on the silent auction as well as the live. I also had to inspire people during our "Raise the Paddle" where they had to generously donate their money just because. Probably the hardest part of this was remembering what number we left off on. I kept forgetting what the last number was as you are looking around the room, talking, trying to inspire. Major adrenaline rush!

There was also a photo booth, photo featured above.

Pumpkin Goo

This year we went to a patch to procure our precious pumpkins. Never having been done before by either of us it was quite the delightful adventure with kettle korn and muddy high heeled boots.
We bought our pumpkins near the beginning of October and carved them approximately 2 weeks prior to Halloween. I don't know if it was our organic patch pumpkins, the warm weather, or the intense daily fog but they were struggling to make it to Halloween.
We had 3 pumpkins. An extremely large pumpkin that laid on its side and had a schooner carved into it. A green tall pumpkin carved to be Frankenstein. And lastly a small perfectly round pumpkin in which I drilled a bunch of holes to create a lantern effect- thank you Pinterest!
A week prior to Halloween the large pumpkin started its stream of goo on our porch. Daily rivers running out of this thing full of rot! It had to go.
A week to go and we are down to two pumpkins. Day before Halloween, the rot stream starts up again, this time from the Frankinpumkin. We had just one day to go so we were going to chance it.
Pumpkins made it! and so did the constant river pouring from them. But being lazy and hosting many a guest we let it be.
My Aunt Cathy arrived Monday evening to our home for the first time ever. I wanted everything to be perfect for her which means the 2 pumpkins that have now collapsed (literally the insides melted away and there was no support for the outer shell) on my front porch must go. Ryan was still at work and I had left early to finish my remaining tasks. I had come up with a plan to use the snow shovel to lift the pumpkins into the compost can as I suspected they would melt into my hands and permanently stain me. I would later be known for the rest of my life as pumpkin hands and could never take up a career in hand modeling.
Plan created, time to execute. I am literally running around the house as I am on a time constraint. So I dart out to the shed, which is locked, to fetch the snow shovel. Due to the time change I am now in a weird twilight and can't see all that well. Ryan has the lock combo memorized but I can't bother him! He's slammed at work. So I try to lift the combo lock up and see the numbers on it. Nothing. I'm flying blind here and my bat sonar isn't strong enough to subtly listen for the clicks of the lock.
I must abandon my efficient plan and think outside of the box. Ryan has been building a garage in the backyard so there must be some scrap wood I can turn into a make shift shovel. I spy a triangular piece of plywood and decide that will do it.
Up front I throw my plywood next to the pumpkin and position my compost garbage can as close as possible. I find a large tree limb that was dislodged and placed in my yard. I use said limb to roll the smaller pumpkin on to the plywood. Majority makes it on but the rest of the pumpkin slimes all over the stick, my shoe, and the porch. I try and use the limb to push the remainder onto the plywood, it just smears it around more. I try to use a spooning technique with the limb and get majority of the rest with a large sploosh. I dump my contents and move on to Frankinpumpkin. He moves on easily and I think this will go off without a hitch. This pumpkin is significantly heavier and I now have goo all over one side of the triangular plywood- the side that I need to grab to distribute the weight evenly. As I don't want to be pumpkin hands freak girl I choose the other side and am now struggling to lift this 4ft plywood with a rotted pumpkin and goo all over it.
I manage to lift the pumpkin, I'm excited, I get cocky, and that's when I start to loose the balance. The pumpkin is shifting and I am losing my secure hold. I start dancing around, armpits pumping out sweat, as I try with failing might to get this pumpkin to the can. But I feel the final shift and watch it roll off my plywood and hit the front porch with a thud. Yelling "NO, NO, NO!!!!" I watch the initial impact take chunks of the pumpkin. Then it rolls to the second level leaving more bits of it's body and rolls to the edge of my walk.
I am now left to pick up the remains of my rotting, molding, gooey Frankinpumpkin. I don't care who I am cleaning for, I refuse to pick up the slick, soupy parts. So I take that hose and spray candles, bits, goo and all into the grass and pray to God no one notices.

When my Aunt Cathy arrived that night she asked if it had rained as the porch was soaked.

Email to fellow colleagues regarding spotify playlist "Twerk Tunes"

I noticed 3 new songs were introduced into our Twerk Tunes playlist and so I decided I best be investigating. One tune in particular caught mine eye and it was your submission of Wrecking Ball.

Initial reaction was “What the hell is this doing in here?”

I decided to give more thought to this submission on my drive home but I was still confused as to how one would twerk to Miley’s intense ballad of being considered a wrecking ball when it comes to love.

Distraught I consulted with our trusted colleague Taylor XXXX (name omitted). His sound council reminded me that our Twerk Tune’s playlist has grown to be so much more than just songs you can twerk to physically but emotional twerking as well. He ended his argument with the final question of “Why hasn’t Wrecking Ball made it in sooner”.

It seems that I have gotten so caught up in the game of life I missed what was really important and that is the essence of Twerk Tunes.

 

Thank you Sam and Taylor for reminding me that -

“I never meant to start a war; I just wanted you to let me in. And instead of using force I guess I should’ve let you win”.

 

Halloween: Clark Kent

Every year I wish to dress up at work for Halloween but I am as always a lone wolf and that can be quite disheartening. I was planning to fly under the radar this year. However our front desk gal emailed me and asked what we were wearing this year... luckily.

I had decided that Clark Kent was a safe costume as it required very little and still looked very professional. Plus I have been wanting to for years and now I also finally have my superman baseball T so I am quite happy.

I was surprised at how many people loved the costume and asked why we didn't ask them to dress up as well. Apparently that's what it takes to get my colleagues to participate- a group costume that is extremely subtle and manageable. Note to self for next year.

I texted my brother that night a photo of me and he sent me back the exact same photo. We two are cut from the same cloth, clearly.

 

 

 

Binx

Life isn't always happy and beautiful. A lot of times social media allows us to believe that other's peoples lives are just that. This post isn't going to be happy or leave you with a feel good feeling because it's going to be honest. I am really hurting right now, this moment, right here. Some of you know that Binx is gone and some of you don't. I don't want to talk about it with people. I don't want someone to ask me if I am going to get another cat. AND I sure as hell don't want someone to suggest to me that I should get a dog. I am in pain people! I have had Binx for 17 years and nothing will replace that. I don't want another cat because I don't think I can go through this a second time.
I love being home but it is the hardest and worst place to be for the last 2 months. Sometimes I hear a sound and I think its her. I see something that reminds me of her. Or we find her hair clumps in the deep recesses of our closet. Part of me wants to take those clumps of hair and put them in a jar. That is disgusting, but I miss her and I want her back and that's the closest thing I have to her.
Some people might not understand this, she is just a cat after all. But Binx was so much more to me. There were nights when I would have guy troubles, family problems, and friend issues and through all that Binx was always there. She even knew when I was in pain because that is when she would choose to be extra loving and curl up on me. At night when I would cry she would nuzzle into my hair and knead the pain away. She was consistently there for me.
She loved to nap with me. When I would work from home she would curl up in my lap. She was so used to hear me sing as loud as I could that if she was in another room and heard me singing she would come running into the room. That used to make Ryan laugh as hard as he was astonished.
It's been 2 months. The pain is slowly numbing but sometimes there are days like these where I feel her loss more than others. Maybe it's because it's Halloween and this was always our holiday. Maybe it's because Ryan and I have been arguing a lot this past week. I don't really know what has brought on the tears but today is a bad one.
I can understand how some people are so distraught they would bring a loved one back from the dead. I would give anything to have her here with me now.
I wish her last days hadn't been so hard on her. I was able to prepare myself and say good bye but I wish she hadn't been so weak. That I hadn't had to see all her pain and weakness. We were with her till the end and there are some things I wish I had never seen. Some memories I wish weren't in my head replaying over and over again. But I owed it to her to be there for her. To be the last face she saw.
I love Binx so much.