Really "Interesting" Things About Me

Last week Gina of http://myskinnygarden.blogspot.com/ tagged me (among others) to answer a few questions about myself. I asked Ashley (granddaughter) to give me completely unbiased help with some of them. Sometimes another pair of eyes can make things clearer - or should I say more honest?

We had a lot of fun with this and hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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1. What were you doing ten years ago?

Working where I work now, but doing probably the worst job there. I ran a large shear and cut and fabricated fiberglass barriers for the internal workings of the transformers. I had to work 10 hours a day and the 4 X 6 (some were bigger) sheets were really heavy to lift and got heavier as the day wore on. After they were cut to the specific size, I'd have to punch holes in them according to a print. I also had to work with 4 X 6 sheets of pressite (it's like heavy cardboard) a lot. The job was (and still is) the lowest labor grade in the shop! The worst thing about this Insulation Fabrication (fancy name for it!) job was that I screwed up my lower back and right sacra joint permanently. I was off on medical for a month but they really have never been the same. Ugh!

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2. My "to do" list./What I've actually done.

Reply to my penfriend, Jane, who lives in Bristol, UK. Give the pugs a bath. Take back to Pet Land the $100 worth of FrontLine I bought without realizing we already had some in the refrigerator! Move the plot along and build up my character's stats on my latest video game.

Well, Jane's letter is still sitting in my imagination, the pugs are smelly, PetLand still has my $100 but ...... as of 4 a.m. last night my character is kicking ass!! Priorities???

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3. Snacks that I enjoy?

Big Macs (yes, to me they are snacks - that's why I'm on a diet!) . Diet Coke - doesn't drinking one cancel out the Big Mac??. and peanut butter (natural, of course). Sometimes I just take a spoon and eat the stuff right out of the jar when I wake up during the night! (Ashley says she does the same thing too - I think there's a genetic predisposition.) Oh, yeah, can't forget: anything sweet - I have dreams that I'm in a room that has tables full of cakes, pies, bars and cookies!!?? and I'm trying to eat them without other people seeing me. Sometimes I'm just stuffing them into my mouth with two hands. (Oh, that is a really embarrassing thing to divulge!)

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4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire.

Pay off our house, take care of all of my family members, buy a home in England, Wales, or Scotland (or all three!) and live there part time, fence in our property, have a pond dug with a stream and waterfall, get more pugs, finance all kinds of animals rescue programs and sanctuaries, make sure all of my charities and organizations (PETA, Greenpeace, ACLU, ASPCA, Farm Sanctuary, FFR, Animal Defense League etc. etc. ) get sizable donations each month (and set up a trust of whatever it's called for them when I'm gone), hire a full time chauffeur, add an addition to our house (two bedrooms instead of one!), fix the fireplace, get new carpeting, and hire someone to install a railing on the basement steps!!! - my sister is sure Steve has taken out a huge insurance policy on me since he can't seem to "get around to doing it. " (Oh yes, have a nice room set aside for playing video games.)

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5. Three bad habits. (Ashley was very helpful with this one!)

Being too quick to anger and jumping to conclusions (I'm working on this, really I am!). Acting like a know-it-all and getting on my "high horse" (this particularly bugs Steve! Ugh it would bug me too!!) And lastly, like Gina, I swear too much. Because I work in a factory (27 years) and am only one of three females that work there, I've tended to pick up all the nasty talk. It does come "trippingly off the tongue" much too easily with me. It's kind of unseemly on a 57 year old Grandma!

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6. Five places where I've lived.

I've lived in Muskego, New Berlin, West Allis, Milwaukee and Waukesha. They are all in Wisconsin and in about a 15 mile radius! I wonder what Freud would have to say about that???

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7. Jobs that I've had.

Oh boy, I had to get into the "Way-Back" machine (any one remember the "Rocky and Bullwinkle Show??) for this one. A summer stint at the local, very small grocery store (hated it 'cause my mother had set the whole thing up without even asking me.). Order typist at a metal fabrication plant (first "real" job and I liked it). Clerk at the fancy YMCA (fun and got to use my artistic and literary skills but the pay sucked, big time - it's non-profit). Accounts receivable clerk at a diesel truck dealership (it was fun meeting all the drivers but I am really bad with numbers. My cashbox would never balance at the end of the day and I'd toss some of my own money into it to make things "right".) Accounts receivable clerk at a steel tubing factory (my father worked in the office there for 40 years - that's how I got the job. Hated it! - Numbers Suck!! You'd think I'd have learned that by then.) Secretary at a printing company (loved it, but was mysteriously and very unceremoniously fired - to this day I can't figure out why but it sure threw me for a loop (those SOBs!I refuse to let go of the anger!).

And now - drum roll - the last 27 years at Cooper Industries: secretary (boring), material handler (fun, just got divorced and guys were falling out of the sky into my lap!!) , insulation fabricator (see above), final assembler (fun and challenging but not made for a short, out of shape, woman in her 50s! Lots of great workmates though.) and lastly Utility Operator (an office/shop job perfect for a short, out of shape (but getting better) woman in her late 50's who has 6 more years until retirement!! Yeah!!!)

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So, this post is a lot of my "outside" life as I think of it. Hope you like it.

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Life is a "zero-sum game"; we are gamblers playing with limited

stakes against a house with infinite resources. We must eventually go under.

We can only strive to hang on as long as possible, have some fun while we're at the table,

and, since we happen to be moral agents as well,

to stay the course with honor.

Stephen Jay Gould

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Bye for now,

Alyssa