Birthday Box # 2

Happy Almost Birthday to Me...it's 

[GO HOME DAY!!!]

I don't have a TON of time to write (did I mention today is the day I get to go home?! It's always a mad dash to get everything done. BLAST you procrastination!) , but I wanted to give a shout out to another great friend who is always super thoughtful and awfully good at gift giving (among many other things). You can visit her blog here to learn/read about all sorts of interesting things and see tips on fashion, movies and many different things about life in general. 

Once again, thank you from the very deep recesses of my little heart for your thoughtfulness on my birthday! Sending things to the Arctic takes forethought and serious follow through and the timing was perfect. I love my gift and the guys will get a kick out of it because they're always calling me "THE boss" all the time...trying to make sure I feel the love and put them in good seats on the plane :). Jewelry is always a hit too, and I LOVE GREEN!  

Many blessings to you this Wednesday my fellow admin! May the rest of your work week be swift and uncomplicated!

Ciao for now....

The Birthday Box...

Oreo Surprise!

[In that selfsame office in the  middle of nowhere]

Abby:

I don't have anything witty or humorous to impart this morning. I am simply reflecting on the fact that I very much appreciate my friends. Over the years several of them have been very thoughtful and sent little care packages, birthday and Christmas gifts to me up on the slope while i'm at work. It may not seem like a super big thing...but when you're away from home for the holidays every year...a little "i'm thinking of you" from far away definitely makes the day brighter!  So for all those little packages...I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. They were very much appreciated!

This topic comes to mind this year because once again that dreaded day where we turn one year older is almost upon me and I walked into my office yesterday morning to find a box.  I opened it (yes...I opened it early! It had no markings to specify that I should do otherwise...that is my defense!) to find a tin that looked exactly like the one pictured above. That's right. A giant Oreo. To my astonishment...it was actually filled with white and black cookies. Delicious! Eating them all was definitely not going to happen, so I sent the remaining cookies (there were a LOT) out to the guys in the control room. They were very grateful! I didn't think anything of it...and then this morning I got an e-mail with a picture in it.

Knowing Emma, I really should have known there would be a message at the bottom.  It made me laugh and think of all the other smiles I have enjoyed due to the thoughtfulness of friends over the years and I am taking a moment to appreciate them all!

Have a beautiful day out there and remember to appreciate your friends, as well as the small things! 

Book of the Day: 

The Birthday Box by Leslie Patricelli

Brave New World...without a cell phone!

A Sad and Tragic Tale

[On hold with Alaska Communications, my friendly cell service provider]

My phone? It looks like the one pictured above (in black). I've had it for awhile so it's the Samsung Galaxy S2. It is the protagonist in this little tale, so I thought it would be good for you to have a visual. Call it the business major in me. 

Abby:

You know when you have one of those days that starts off with only trying to do one thing, and that one thing takes forever because of the evolution of the worst idea ever..automated service lines? Today was just such a day. The good news...I made a new friend. His name is Art. We chatted on the phone for about 2 hours because I have the a lifestyle that is directly contrary to dealing with a company that only resides in one state! Yay! Here's the scoop:

PHONE:

I find great pleasure in shutting off randomly while internally smiling gleefully as my handler gets really frustrated! Then...I won't turn on...just because...even though my battery is fully charged. I have been playing this game for about a year now in the hopes of going to phone heaven (recycling) and my handler has FINALLY capitulated to my evil plan and spent the time necessary to replace me! (gleeful cackle)

Abby:

Okay...so I know my phone is an inanimate object but i'm SURE that's what it would be thinking if it wasn't. ACS has been very accommodating about the whole thing since I have handset insurance, but it doesn't change the logistics of things. 

Option 1: Mail it to me at work. It takes approximately a week to get the new phone, and I will be leaving the slope in exactly that amount of time. Chances are, the phone and I would miss each other in transit and I would be phone-less for two weeks until I came back to work. Not my favorite idea. 

Option 2: Come into the store and get it replaced/swapped out in person.  I would love to...unfortunately by the time I land in Anchorage, all the branch stores are closed...and they do not open again until after I have already left again.  Yeah...that's not going to work either.

Option 3: Mail it to me at home in Idaho. I know..this makes perfect sense right?! Just a small snag: They "can't" send phone's out of state unless for "pressing" reasons. Art is a good guy however, and he put me on hold for another 20 minutes and convinced his supervisor that this circumstance is pressing. Yay! Oh wait...you have to be IN Alaska to activate the phone. TRAGIC. So here I am again...I have a phone in hand...but I can't activate it and use it regardless because i'm in Idaho. Again...phone-less until at back at work.

Option 4: Art...he's a salesman and he figured out the plan. He's going to mail it to me in ID, but he's going to activate it first. Woo hoo! Initially, it sounded like a super great plan until he told me that once he activated the new phone, my current phone would no longer work. 

That brings me to the sad part of this tale. I AM going to be phone-less with Option 4. However it will only be for a week instead of 2 which is nice. It amazes me that as a society we are all so dependent on one tiny little mobile device. It's a brave new world out there with so many electronics always at our finger tips! I admit it...I count myself in that "society." I may not be as attached as some...but i'm definitely going to feel it's loss this next week. 

Enjoy your texting everyone! If I don't text back...I promise i'm not ignoring you!

Once (or twice or three times) Upon a Time...

Act 4, Scene 2
[From that Arctic Tundra that I love so much and where it seems is the only place have time for updating this blog!]

Once upon a time there was a girl who decided to undertake writing a blog while she was moving and then helping remodel a house (this is where the 2 or 3 times in the title comes in). It was her hope that she would be quite prompt in updating and writing new posts to keep all the awesome people she lives far away from the ability to check up on what she was doing without having to navigate the overused and less exciting (as the years go by) pages of ...Facebook. As often happens with dreams and ideals, hers was a tiny bit ambiguous and her blogging has morphed into a semi-monthly posting status. This is not due to lack of ideas or things to do/share but by the fact that both work and home have been insanely busy. She has come to terms with this sort of, but even so... her resolve has been renewed to blog more often than not. Let me introduce you...

Abby:

Hello again! I'm sure you've all forgotten who I am by now...! Okay...Kidding. Here's the deal. Remember that investment property the folks bought that i'm going to bum a room in? I thought you would. It has been consuming my time off because we have been painting and tiling like crazy!  The good news? We're done...well...done with the basement (where I will be living) for the most part. I still have to work on the bathroom, but since we need to replace the toilet..it's not a super high priority. My last two times home (the last 6 weeks) have been a little crazy with early mornings and late nights (we know how much I love those!) trying to get everything done enough that I can at least sort through my stuff in storage and get rid of at least one of my little storage units to save myself about $30 a month. That being said...pictures are worth a thousand words right? Perfect. Here's what i've been up to before and after:

Granted...these colors are pretty bright and obviously that's not all the rooms that were painted...but we decided to make it fun in the basement (Mary gets to have a "girly" room and mine will be "earthy" instead of Paris chic type) and have the ledge around the whole basement be chocolate colored so that everything would "match" and you would only need to change the top half of the wall if you wanted a new color scheme in any of the bedrooms. The living room/hallways are all a pretty neutral "latte" color but a little lighter. From the same color palette that I used in my house. I know...it probably looks a little crazy right now...but it will be AWESOME once we decorate and get the carpet in the rooms etc. Ooh...I almost forgot the most important part....FLOORING!

The entire basement is tiled with the exception of Mary and I's rooms, so it took awhile. Now we're done though, and carpet should be in the bedrooms by the time I get home in 10 days. YES! Treadmill...I miss you...

...and they all lived happily ever after...for now.