I have been neglecting this blog lately (again!), and I guess I will have to blame Mafia Wars for most of it. Michael and I have both been playing this silly game on Facebook far too much--well, I think I have been playing it far too much. It's been keeping Michael occupied and providing him with some much-needed entertainment. :) When I do finally go back to work, Michael will probably take over for me and keep my mafia in tip-top fighting shape--something he does better anyway.
Some fun things have happened in our lives since last I wrote: Michael had his 36th birthday celebration with family and friends at our house, we visited Mt. St. Helens with our friends, John and Amy (and their kids, Connor and Kaiden), AND I got responses from not one, but TWO jobs that I applied for.
We had Michael's party on August 30 (a week after his actual birthday), and our house was full to the brim with people wishing him well. Both sets of our parents came, his sister and her family, and our friends John and Amy and their kids. It doesn't sound like too many, but it made for a full house! We had a potluck-themed birthday, and the spread was unbelievable. My dad made his very famous macaroni salad, Amy brought a bean salad that was incredible, Michael's sister Christy brought a yummy fruit salad and his folks brought the meat for the BBQ: steaks and chicken--and hot dogs for the kids. Michael was SO happy about his steak. He kept ohhhing and ahhhing beside me as he ate it. My contribution was sauteed zucchini and yellow squash (from the farm down the road) and Michael's birthday cake.
I had never made a cake from scratch before and when I asked Michael what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, he said "white cake with lemon filling." So I did a search on the Internet and found a Martha Stewart cake recipe that looked pretty good. It was complicated (a challenge for sure, requiring an ice water bath, straining lemon curd through a colander, and separating the yolks and whites of 8 eggs), but it was actually really fun. I started the cake at about 11 a.m. on Saturday, and I finished frosting it (with homemade cream cheese frosting, mind you, that called for an ENTIRE bag of powdered sugar!) at about 11 p.m. that night. But let me tell you, I had an extreme sense of accomplishment after finishing that cake. I did a taste test of the lemon curd halfway through and it was surprisingly good (with a name like 'curd,' my hopes weren't too high. It reminded me of Little Miss Muffet's curds and whey . . . and I've never been too fond of lemon either); it was SO good, in fact, that I was wishing there was more lemon curd than the thin little ribbon running between the two layers of cake.
Michael collected some fun birthday cards, a balloon proclaiming him to be a "Rock Star," birthday money and the show-stopping gift of a popcorn popper. Ever since having movie nights with John and Amy and munching on their air-popped popcorn, he has been craving it at home too. Now he can have it whenever the mood strikes!
Last weekend, September 6, John and Amy invited us to join them on a family day-trip to Mt. St. Helens. I had been one time as a little girl, but didn't remember it, and Michael hadn't been since he was in his early teens. Both of us had a really good time checking out the visitor centers and reading about the eruption in May of 1980. Amy and I agreed that the weather suited the subject at hand: it was gray and stormy and rained pretty hard on us about lunch time, spoiling all hope of a picnic lunch outside. It wasn't hard to imagine the day when the mountain sent ash spewing for hundreds of miles and turned the day into night. We all decided that we'd need to make the trip again, though, on a sunnier day when we could get a good look at Mt. St. Helens, because all we saw was her base--or what we assumed to be her base.
And finally . . . yes, it very well may be that I will be returning to work on a full-time basis shortly. It's been 6 months now (!) since I have worked regularly and the job prospect has been pretty bleak for both Michael and me. I did get a phone call on Labor Day, however, and an interview the next day. The job would be a customer service representative position with a medical transport company. Seniors and people with disabilities call and schedule transportation to and from doctor's appointments, and I would be one of the people taking their calls. I got to have a tour of the call center and even listen in on 3 or 4 calls to get an idea of the job. It seems like I would enjoy it--I've been wanting to find a niche where I could continue to work for others, and this would be quite rewarding, I think. So cross your fingers, everyone, as I'm hoping to hear back soon . . . one of the best things about the job is that I would once again have health insurance--finally!
One more thing to note . . . last night I had a training with a volunteer group in the Portland area called "No One Dies Alone." I had first read about this program in an Oprah magazine a year or so ago, and then my mom alerted me to a similar article in The Oregonian last June that said there was a need for volunteers. I feel a strong pull to doing this kind of work--sitting with people who are very close to death (within 24-48 hours), and who for whatever reason, do not have family or friends to be with them during their transition. After last night's training, I am excited and scared at the same time. I think it will be a sacred experience, witnessing this extremely personal part of someone's life, but at the same time, I hope I will be strong enough. We shall see, we shall see.
