October, November, and December!

Hey everyone! Once again, I have been a slacker on the blog-front. We've had such a busy couple of months that now that we finally have some down time, neither of us feels like doing anything productive. This post is going to be a bit of a two-parter in order to keep it short and to give proper spotlight to some of the events. After the new year, I'll even have a third post to share with you! Hooray!

Without further adieu, let's get started! 

Apartment Update:

We do still love our apartment, as I made it clear in my last post. However, we've discovered some new irritating quirks about it-- namely, our neighbor(s). We have discovered, through great pains, that our upstairs neighbor is very overweight and very heavy footed. There is only so much our complex is willing to do about the situation. Specifically, they want to move us to a top floor (third floor) unit in order to prevent the same thing from happening should we move to another first floor or even second floor unit, but I'm being stubborn about it because I don't think we should be punished when we aren't the ones causing the issue. I think that any other person who moves into the unit we're currently in would have the same problem, and I'm not willing to trudge up two flights of stairs for the next nine months. So we are suffering through our iron-footed neighbor, even though the noise is cutting into our sleep and into Patrick's work. The paintings on our wall rattle, as do the glasses in our kitchen cabinets, and we can tell where he is in the apartment at all times. It's terrible. I'm waiting for the day that plaster starts to fall from the ceiling and he just tumbles into our living room. 

October:

October was CRAZY! There were eight Rocky Horror shows scheduled from October 4 through November 1. At the end of the month, we had shows three nights in a row-- one in a different state! The 4th was in Menlo Park, the 17th was in Menlo Park, the 18th was in Cloverdale, the 24th was in Pittsburg, the 25th in SF, the 30th in Reno, the 31st in SF, and the 1st in Menlo Park. Because of Patrick's work schedule, we were only able to make it to six of the eight shows, but it was a blast! I especially had fun doing the Pittsburg, Reno, and Halloween shows. I learned a new skill (doing spotlight), and in doing so I finally found a place on cast where I am particularly useful, because I am really bad at memorizing prop cues. 

Our Pittsburg show even got its own article, which you can check out here. Claps to our amazing cast and especially our directors for getting through the craziest month most of us have ever experienced! 

Spotlight selfie! I really just love this outfit. I wore it to at least three of the Rocktober shows.

Our Janet (Victoria) and Colombia (Diane) posing with their fans!

Our very own "age ambiguous dancing tree"!

YMCA

Patrick was a mouse (duh!) for Halloween! Actually, he was Karen as a mouse from Mean Girls. We spent weeks looking for the perfect dress, wig, and shoes so that he could look the part but not be as... revealing as the character was in the movie. 

I did his makeup for the night, which I am incredibly proud of (it is screen accurate). He makes a real pretty woman, if I do say so myself!

I don't have any good photos of my Halloween costume on actual Halloween, however here it is a few weeks previously at our friends Mandy and Brook's Halloween party! Can you tell what I went as?

In the midst of Rocktober, Patrick and I were also travelling quite a bit. Lately he has been getting business in places that are reasonable distances away, which means that he can drive and I can go with him. In October we were in Burlingame (just a few miles from where we used to live, but too long of a drive for Patrick to have commuted every day), then we went home for a night, then drove straight to Vegas for a work-related convention, and then we drove straight from Vegas to Reno for the Rocky Reno show. From Reno we drove home and we finally got a short break (from work, not from Rocky, as we still had two more shows). Shortly after that, Patrick flew to Texas for work, and when he got home we went straight to Disneyland! Our Disney trip will be in a separate post because it really was magical. Probably the best trip we've ever had. Our Vegas trip will also be in a separate post because there is so much to include! 

The view from our room in Reno

November:

Most of November was spent with me at home and Patrick travelling. Not a whole lot happened worth mention except for Thanksgiving. This year, even though it was just the two of us, I was determined to have a full Thanksgiving dinner like I would have had with my family in Michigan. So, Patrick let me cook for once, and I made a very successful Thanksgiving dinner. Having been the first time I've ever made an entire meal by myself, we were both really impressed with the job I did! 

Our Menu:

• Ham
• Mashed Garlic Redskin Potatoes
• Green Bean Casserole
• Sweet Potato Casserole 
• Cranberry Sauce
• Rolls
• Pumpkin Pie (purchased from Safeway because it was a last minute item... Silly me, I thought having Sweet Potato Casserole was kind of the same thing, but someone complained)

December:

Shortly after Thanksgiving, I was hit with some news that I knew was coming but it took me by surprise all the same. My mother moved and all of my stuff was still at the old house, and when I called her and asked if she had gotten all of the things I had asked her to grab for me, she hadn't. I don't mean to say that I don't trust my mother, but if those things are the only things I have left back in Michigan, I wanted to make sure they got to a safe place before she moved out. So when I found out that she has to be out of our old house in very early January, I knew I had to go back to get my stuff and make sure the job was done myself. Only a week away from when I would fly home, I booked a plane ticket and started to pack. I was lucky to even get a ticket so close to the holidays, and had I not gone back when I did, I would have been travelling DURING the holidays, which would have actually been impossible as there were no flights left. And so I went back to Michigan on December 7 and returned to California on December 17 for a quick, pretty disappointing trip home (which I won't get into here). I did get to visit with a few people and some family and I got to go to the Detroit Zoo, but I'm hoping future trips will be better!

Ella is now five years old!

Christina is now eight!

Me and Zach's Corn Snake, Arbok

A tiny bird that flew into my grandparents' sliding glass door. He was quite dazed and needed some love. (P.S. Rest assured that most of these pictures are of animals, because I love them more than humans)

Seafood pasta, compliments of Chef Grandpa! I can still taste it, and it is so, so good.

Babcia! My favorite woman :) I love you!

Hatching butterflies at the Detroit Zoo! HOW COOL!

The most majestic animals on the face of the earth. Look at those beauties.

Obligatory hippo picture!

Coming Up:

Our outlook for the new year changes almost every day, it seems. Patrick's work schedule is never definite, and often he will be sent to any number of places at a moment's notice. We do know that we will be spending Christmas day together, and then Jackie and Dan will be coming over on Saturday and we will do Christmas with them. New Year's Eve will be spent with our Rocky family at our annual NYE Rocky show, but the coming months are really up in the air as for trips, travel, or events. Of course, we do look forward to spending as much time as possible together!

The First Holiday & Brook's Promotion

Hey everyone!

I'm so sorry for the picture quality-- they were taken with my crappy phone (but I'm getting a new one within a few days!) because our camera was broken at a Rocky show (someone stepped on it and blacked out the screen).

The first exciting thing that has happened to me recently is that I got a promotion at work! That's right-- I'm not even past my 3 month probationary period and I've already gotten promoted over everyone else (and, remember, I'm still the newest person working there)! I'm so excited about this opportunity. I also feel that it's going really well so far! I'm proud to have reached the point where someone recognizes that I don't hold back when it comes to work and that I will do what it takes to get the job done. I've gotten a raise with this promotion, so that is also super exciting! I started out as someone who just cleans out kennels (remember, I work at a cat hotel, so every morning we clean out the kennels so our kitties can have a fresh start each day). Now, I'm in charge of everyone who does that. In addition to cleaning out kennels, I'm the one who comes up with a game plan for the day and organizes the back, making sure everything is clean, accessible, and equally distributed. It's a lot of work, but I'm up for the challenge (and the increase in hours)!

On the second day your kitty stays with us, we take a picture of them to reassure you and show you how much fun they're having! For holidays, we have a small separate room that we clear out and decorate for the holiday accordingly. Here is the "Thanksgiving" setup that I did!

While that was more of an announcement, the next bit is more of a recap of the most recent event, Thanksgiving.

I knew moving away from my family would be difficult. I've never been very good at making friends, so while I had three or four friends back home that I would spend time with, I was always (and still am) extremely family oriented. Every day gets a little easier, but I never stop missing my loved ones back home. While technically Independence Day was my first holiday away from home, it's not one that I normally celebrate-- and Halloween isn't exactly family-ish, either-- so the first "family holiday" was Thanksgiving. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I became increasingly sad. I have never spent a holiday away from my family, and there are staples in each holiday that I am so used to because they have become tradition, so there was a very sad overcast surrounding the upcoming holiday.

On Thursday, I ended up having to work (because the kitties need love and care, too!), so I woke up at my normal 6am and headed in to work an hour early so that I could try to get some of the base work done so that the rest of the employees could come in at our later holiday start time and just get started on their assigned tasks. The day was very long and dragging, but my boss made it so worth it when our manager sent us all on lunch and we found a gigantic Thanksgiving feast in the break room waiting for us. Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, spinach dip with crackers, stuffing, broccoli and cauliflower, pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin pie, and sparkling cider, all laid out on the counter for the employees that worked on the holiday.

Let me quickly go off on a bit of a tangent here and tell you about my work experience. Since I turned 18, I have had five jobs (my current job makes six, keeping in mind that I mostly did not work while I was in college). Our of the five, my favorite was obviously the Han D Dip. Cathy and Dawn made our jobs so worth it and I was almost always excited to work. This was when I discovered my preference for Mom & Pop shops. Franchise companies or even companies that work contractually are very strict and, at least for those that I have worked for, tend to ignore/fail to notice when an employee is doing ANYTHING. Let me give you an example of what I mean when I say ANYTHING-- they fail to notice when you work hard, when you slack, when you need help, when you're doing extra to make up for someone else, and even that you're a human being that makes mistakes. My favorite thing about working for a small company is that you are noticed and treated like a person-- not something that is expendable. When I decided to move here, one of the hardest things I had to do was leave my job at the Han D Dip. Patrick was so patient with me as I looked for work here and waited for the right opportunity, and I cannot thank him enough for that. When I applied for my job, I was nervous, but even my interview felt intimate and friendly, so when I was offered the job I was so excited to take the deal. I have not regretted it. Working for a small company with such compassionate people in charge is the only way I ever want to work. A boss who brings you an elaborate feast on Thanksgiving is the kind of person that I will work for any day. It takes the sting of missing the holiday away, and that is so significant and heart warming.

If I can't spend the holiday with family until later, I think I'm okay spending it with this guy!

Sahib loves me. Really, he does.

After we finally got out of work (holidays are busy because while our clients go out of town, we get to house their kitties! So we had a very very full house this week-- we were booked full), I headed home and Patrick and I got ready to go to Shannon and Jared's house. Shannon and Jared are such incredible people. Patrick doesn't have much family except for an out of state sister and Jackie, so holidays aren't as important to him as they are to me because he didn't always have someone to spend them with. However, when he joined the Bawdy Caste, the directors pretty much adopted him (and me, too, when I got here), and then invited us so spend Thanksgiving with them and their family. To say that this meant a lot to me is an understatement. I was so afraid when I moved here that no one would like me, yet I've been adopted into a family that loves me and supports me in every way, no questions asked. It's more than I could ever ask for and I am so very grateful!

We spent most of the day at S&J's but I wore out quickly because I had been up all day and had worked beforehand, so we left around 9pm and headed home. The next day, I was a little bit sad that I didn't have some specific things during dinner (things that my family makes without fail every year), so that night Patrick and I made our own "Thanksgiving" feast: chicken breast (because I hate Turkey), green bean casserole (my standing favorite of all holiday dishes, even beating out pumpkin pie), mashed potatoes, and for dessert, oatmeal cookies.

Leftovers from Shannon and Jared's. Mmmm breakfast mashed potatoes

Our "makeup" Thanksgiving dinner (pretty much just so I could have an excuse to make green bean casserole and then eat all of it)

Overall, while I would have loved to spend the holiday with my family back home from Michigan, I had an incredible holiday this year because I got to spend it with my work family, my Rocky family, and Patrick. If I focus on that, everything else is just quite alright with me.



***For those of you who fail to read my Facebook posts but read my blog, here is the Facebook status I put up this week. It addresses the upcoming Christmas holiday:

"Hey everyone,
This is a quick message for anyone back home who is wondering about the upcoming holidays. Though I've been trying to save up for a plane ticket so that I can come home for Christmas, unfortunately I do still have bills to pay and right now it is about $1,000 for a halfway decent plane ticket back to the Mitten (meaning I do not have 8 hour layovers or a board time of 3:00am or flights spanning beyond one day's time). Therefore, I will not be able to make it home for Christmas even though that was my original plan. For anyone who suggests a bus ticket, please realize that I do have a job and that traveling for 3 days to get to Michigan and then 3 days to get back to California is just absurd and I cannot do that, especially with my recent promotion at work. While I miss everyone and tomorrow will be especially difficult for me since it will be my first holiday away from my family, I hope that everyone understands the situation that I am in and respects that I cannot make something like that happen. I love and miss everyone and hopefully next year will be different. 
Brook"