Thrown Away #1

Today was trash day. I threw away some red socks. I loved these socks. A woman made them for me on my mission. She knit them and brought them to me one day at church. I loved wearing them because they were warm, but more than that, I thought of the care that went into making them. And how excited she was to give them to me. I should have tried to fix them before they were beyond repair. I guess we had a good run. I have probably had them for six years. They were a quick reminder back to my mission and the lovely people I met there. One day I hope I will be able to knit socks; and the first pair I make, they're going to be red.

First tea, and now this:

Hi Bison Designs, I have an Easter Island faced water bottle. I have had it and enjoyed it for just under two years. Recently it has started to leak at the bottom. Is their any kind of warrantee with it? I would like to have another one the same burnt orange color. He has been my traveling buddy the last few years and I would really like to be able to have some more adventures with him. Thanks, Melanee

The Missing Fork

Cast:
Operator-Age 19, dressed in t-shirt and shorts
Painter/Ashley-Age 19, dressed in jeans splattered with paint, baggy shirt, and bandana around hair
Telephone Specialist-Age 26, dressed professionally (in a young-and-hip way), wavy hair, infectious smile, dashing sense of humor, good at waterskiing, and has a knack at remembering lame jokes

Scene: Heat Plant Office
Operator is sitting at a small desk with a phone on stage right. Has a lunch bag on the ground next to him containing a Tupperware container of spaghetti, an apple, and some cookies in a Ziploc bag. Telephone specialist at center stage facing audience typing on computer just offset to her left.

Lights up. Telephone Specialist is typing on her computer while the Operator is on a call.

Operator: I have that number and will transfer you now.
[Operator pauses]

Operator: You’re welcome!
[Operator punches in numbers on phone to transfer the caller and then hangs up the phone]

[Painter walks in from stage right]

Painter: Morning!
[Painter moves towards stage left and begins process of punching in to work]

Operator: Hi!
[Operator grabs for lunch and starts dumping out contents onto table]

Telephone Specialist: Hi Ashley, how are you?

Painter: Good, how are you?

Telephone Specialist: I am well, thank you.

[Operator lays out all pieces and dumps out bag to realize he doesn’t have a fork for the spaghetti in his Tupperware]
Operator: Dang it! I forgot a fork.

Operator: [While looking to the Phone Specialist] Do you have one?

Telephone Specialist: Sorry, I don’t.

Operator: Do you Ashley?

Painter: No. But why don’t you do what the other operators do?

Operator: What are you talking about?

[Painter punches in time card]

Painter: Some of the other operators just use [gestures toward the Phone Specialist] her ruler.
[Painter turns to put card away and start walking towards exit on stage left]

[Operator looks at Phone Specialist; is surprised and confused. Phone Specialist looks to the back of the painter; appalled]

[Painter holds up hand and nonchalantly waves goodbye while exiting stage left]

Painter: Well; see you later!

[Phone Specialist, still appalled, turns to make eye contact with the Operator. Then the Phone Specialist looks down at her desk]

[Phone Specialist slowly opens the desk drawer and painfully moves stuff around in drawer before pausing and slowly pulling out a ruler by a small edge with two of her fingers. She holds it up, stares at it, and makes a sickened face.]

Phone Specialist: Ew.

[lights out]

When I am

old* and retired* I am going to have two houses.
I am not going to be a snow bird or anything like that. The plan is to have a house on each side of the equator. That way I will have two summer houses and will fly between them for each of their respective summer seasons. My summer home north of the equator will hopefully be in Alaska. I am open for suggestions for my home south of the equator.

Or I will settle for living in a retirement community with all of my current friends and their spouses. I want every house on the block to be someone from my life and then we can spend our afternoons catching up and reminiscing about all of our good ol’ days. Let me know if you want in.

My great grandmother took butter packets

from restaurants and would keep them in her purse and eat them later. Plain. I haven't done that yet*, but I did inherit her taste-buds for cream. Oh cream. Davis girls can drink whipping cream straight, and I'm a Davis girl.
Last night I found myself at Denny's meeting some of my new roommate's friends. I wasn't hungry and was there for the company. The person next to me ordered a hot chocolate and when the waitress asked if he wanted whipped cream on it he said no. No! That is the best part of restaurant hot chocolate! I elbowed him and whispered, "On the side!" He quickly cleared his throat and told the waitress he would like to have his cream on the side. Good. She came out a few minutes later with his hot chocolate hovering the brim of his mug and with a side dish of whipped cream that generously filled the dish and came to a peak. My delight spilled over but I cautiously tried it; careful to make sure it wasn't a cool whip or diary substitute. It was not. It was wonderful. This place does unlimited refills of Hot Chocolate and the person next to me had two more cups--each time his whipped cream was brought on the side in the same manner.By the second dish I was pretty satisfied but also like my great grandmother, I won't let something so good go to waste; thus, my roommate and I finished off the third one as well. I loved that waitress--she said she was a whipped cream girl herself and so she did it right. That she did!



*Butter in Europe is amazing. There were a few times there I ate the butter practically plain.

Today I caught some bread

falling off my shelf and later I caught my cell phone before it hit the pavement as I was walking back from the grocery store. I am good at catching things as they fall. This is related to the fact that I am also somewhat clumsy. If I wasn’t good at catching falling items, I would imagine that I would be good at gluing broken things back together.

I work in a Heat Plant

which is interesting for an operator because there are all types of alarms that sound. The alarms are different depending on if there is a fire alarm, boiler problem, emergency wellness center alarm, or call accounting alarm. I have become an amateur connoisseur of alarms, deciding if it is really annoying to only slightly irritating. But the heat plant is a happening place that has people coming in and out to see tunnels, cut out boilers, and people working to keep campus warm. I like it because there is always something going on or to see including:

They painted this cabinet and wanted it to dry on all sides so they lifted the top up with a crane.

This is my office--they were working on electrical stuff and set us up temporarily. This was also the same day the campus Fire Marshall and fire department representative needed to come by...

This was a sprinkler right outside my office that kept having issues

I don't remember what they were doing...

but there is always special things happening at the Heat Plant!