March 2011

Once again, time has flown by and here I am in Vail AZ. My 50th birthday is 6 days away. What? Really? I am too young to be 50! Our beautiful daughters will be here next week to see the sun and to hang with us. Oh yeah, and have a party! I love to throw parties! Everyone is happy, the sound of laughter and chatter is a joy to my ears.

I continue to look for that perfect place. Maybe I'm already there? I sure miss my family and friends in the northwest. If only there were more sunny days up there. The sun makes a big difference. Our last year in WA was a tough pill to swallow. Out of work, no sun, cold rain, snow and general ennui.

I need to write more things down, as a catharsis, if you will.

I am 4 days post-surgery. One more procedure on a total ankle replacement. Wonderful orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Peg Chilvers, who came highly recommended by my favorite "Red Head" Dr. Bruce Sangeorzan at Harborview Foot and Ankle Institute in Seattle. He cautiously replaced my ankle, and here we are almost 5 years later, and she's still hanging in there (I decided it was a girl, and I named her Agile. She's a bit finicky, somewhat privileged, and very much worshipped.) Over the past 5 years we have learned a lot about each other. The biggest thing was that I needed to let go of my anger over injuring myself in the first place. That was tough. I am grateful that Dr. S took a chance on me and replaced the ol' wheel. these little devices are reserved for little old ladies who's sit around and watch their "stories" and may be venture t to bingo once a week! All I wanted to be able to do was walk my dogs, and that I can do..mostly.

So scar tissue and bone spurs removed...let's get the pain under control and get on with it!
I'll be back.

Tucson 1 year later

We have now been in Tucson for a little over a year. And what a year! I was hired by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra on an interim basis and promoted to manager by April. Many restructuring and personnel changes have resulted in some very long hours picking up the slack left behind with staff cuts. The non profit world is so tenuous, that I think looking to the corporate world, even my own gig might be in order! Rick works for Symantec now, they bought Verisign in the summer, and he is still here at his hoe office with trips to the corporate office ~ quarterly.

Miss the girls terribly - spent a week in Bellingham taking care of Kara who had PRK eye surgery. Successful operation and my darling can see!! Alyssa is full time at Western and works for Kara.

Lets see what the holidays bring!

Since I was last here - so much has changed. Rick and I moved to Tucson...I arrived FridayJuly 9 after a 2 days haul ass trek through WA, OR, CA and AZ in 113 degree heat...to start a job on Monday July 13.
That job was a night mare! I was hired by a temp agency as an admissions recruiter for The Art Center Design college here in Tucson...I was on the job a total of 7 working days before I contemplated socking the president in the jaw. What a mean-sprited, passive-aggressive, down right frightening human. (Although human may be a generous term.) Succubus is more accurate!
Any way, I am now back on the hunt for gainful employment...I know everything happens for a reason, so i am trying to remain positive and keep pluggin' away.
Tucson is so very different from the Pacific Northwest. It is beautiful in its own rugged way...
A drive up into the Catalina mountains to arrive at Mt. Lemmon was very impressive. what landscapes, and the higher we went the more the the vegetation changed! We started out in cactus land and ended up in the Ponderosa Pine forest. There is a ski resort up there too! Ski Valley, at 9000 feet! We move into our new house this friday...stay tuned for that report!