I'm a Life Long Bookworm And I Love Old Photos

This is me. And it is a classic. Even at a very young age, I had already mastered the look. "Ummm no.. I have no interest in playing hide and seek with you, you silly boys that claim to be my brothers. Can't you see I'm in the middle of a very good book?"

Truth be told, if you look closely at the photo, I believe the book might be upside down. I am most certain one of my brother's was probably pointing this out and making fun of me which brought on the icy stare of the little sister... Fear the little sister! They found that out later, I'm sure! :)

Their teasing, however, not diminish my life long love of reading. Eventually I almost always had the book right side up and read everything I could get my hands on! From all the books in the church Sunday School rooms to ordering books by mail from the public library when I was a kid living on a farm in the country. They were delivered and returned through the USPS for free! I read every Nancy Drew book and every Hardy Boys book that was available.

Going back to the photo though... I'd like to note that my Mom should totally get credit for inventing the Princess Leia hair style almost a decade BEFORE Star Wars came out in the theaters.  And I mean the ORIGINAL Star Wars!  Few people know where the idea came from.  Until now....

Also of note.... for those that know me.... You can already see that my feet had grown disproportionately large, relative to the rest of my body! Ha ha!! You'd think I would have better balance, all things considered!  Just one of those things that makes me unique!

I am enjoying finding these old photos. They make me smile. Although the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the photos could be better, I am thankful to have these memories preserved! 

Keep on smiling!

The Grand Romantic Gesture

I was pretty late getting home from work last night. I came into the house and found candles lit everywhere - all through the house. It was beautiful and so romantic!

And I thought to myself, “Wow, who are you and what have you done with my husband?” But seriously, the glass is half full and life is full of unexpected surprises so I decided to just roll with it. Carpe diem! So…. with my best come hither smile, I said, “Wow! I love all the candles!”

And my husband looked at me with those hazel blue eyes of his and said, “Oh yeah, it really, really stunk in here when I got home. It was awful. I think it was something in the garbage. I don’t know what but it was really bad. So I took out the garbage and then lit all the candles to get the stink out.”

Ohhh yeah…. that sounds more like my husband. I guess I let my imagination run away with me… :) 

Silver lining! The house smells great now! And I choose to find it romantic that he went through all the work of making sure the stink was gone before I got home! 

Keep on smiling!

Diversity in the Workplace

I am a lifetime HR professional.  It is what I have always done.  Over the years, there have been ever increasing discussions around diversity.

When people think of diversity, generally they think of ethnic diversity, followed closely by gender diversity.

But diversity is so much more than differences in ethnic background or differences in gender!

My administrative assistant is less than half my age.  Let’s call her Peg.

Peg: I’m puttin’ on my boots tonight and going to a Luke Bryan concert!

Kari: Sounds like fun! We have tickets to see Bob Seger next week!

Peg: Oh! The dad from Full House?

Let’s not forget to honor the little things that make us all different and diverse!  And let’s not forget to have a sense of humor!

Keep on smiling!

Bob Saget

Bob Seger

The Rain Gauge

 

We’re from Wisconsin. We talk about the weather a lot. We start off conference calls by asking our coworkers in other parts of the country or world about the weather. Frankly, I thought everyone was as infatuated with the weather as we are. It turns out they are not.

One of my former managers was from California. She said she never understood why people from the Midwest talked about the weather so much. People in southern California don’t talk about the weather.   “How’s the weather today?  It’s 72 and sunny.  Just like every other day in southern California.” What’s the point in talking about it? 

And then she moved to Wisconsin and the reason for all the weather talk became very clear. You never know what’s going to happen.  It can be sunny and warm in the morning when you wake up and blizzard warnings can be out by the afternoon. Or tornado warnings. Or hurricane strength winds. Or wind chills below zero.  You can run the heat in your car on the way to work and need to run your air conditioning on the way home from work.  So the weather is always an interesting topic!

The meteorologists here earn their money. Or at least they give it their best shot.

This summer I bought a rain gauge. Somehow it made me feel very old. I’m not sure why but I have this belief that the only people who own rain gauges and are actually interested in how much rain we get are either farmers (I grew up on a farm) or old people. 

The funeral home in the town I grew up in gave out rain gauges as a gift one year.  So there are still people (probably old people) in my home town with little plastic gauges with the funeral home information on them.

I found my rain gauge when I was looking for something else of course. But there it was and it is decorative!!  The stand has scroll work and a red glass globe and the rain gauge itself is set nicely into the scroll work.

I was a bit embarrassed to put it out in my yard but I did and it looks great with the flowers and plants surrounding it.

Of course once I had the rain gauge out, we headed into a long drought period and I had no need for it!!

Sort of like last year when we finally broke down after 20+ years and bought a new snow blower.  We didn’t have a large enough snowfall to use it more than once during the season!

Makes me wonder what else we should buy to alter the state of nature! Ha ha!

But back to the rain gauge. I am now the person who can tell, with authority, how much it has rained in our neighborhood.  This weekend has been completely gray and gloomy and rainy.  We have already had 7 inches of rain with no end in sight.

I have to say, knowing exactly how much rain has come down is somehow more comforting to me than only knowing that it has rained steadily since Friday night!!

I’m sure I’ll keep talking about the weather no matter where I roam. Just like I keep taking pictures of sunsets and sunrises!

Keep on smiling!

The Times They Are A-Changin'

I've taken a bit of a break from my blog. It was a really busy summer with a crazy work schedule, high school graduation, a trip abroad for my daughter and all the prep work for her freshman year at college. It's the beginning of a new adventure for all of us!

A lot has changed since I was in college. This summer we found an old tuition bill from my freshman year. Tuition, room and board was about $1700 for the semester. Tuition is now about $7500 a semester at a state school. I hate to admit it but a lot of years have passed! :) And I still believe the benefits of a college education far outweigh the monetary investment.

I chatted with my daughter on the phone the other night. It was so nice to hear her voice! She was telling me about her science class and how she was planning to go back out online and review her professor’s presentation again. I was curious as to how she does this. She explained to me that he posts his PowerPoint slides online after the lecture so the students have access to them. 

I said, “Wow, that’s really nice! Our professors never did things like that when we were in college.” 

And then I realized it probably had something to do with the fact that PowerPoint hadn’t been invented yet.

And even if PowerPoint had already been invented, there was no “online” to post it to.

And even if “online” had existed, I wouldn’t have been able to access it from my typewriter!

It's amazing how much has changed from my experience to her experience. And amazing how much really hasn't!

What a great adventure!

Keep on smiling!

Workin' For the Weekend!

This morning started off on the wrong foot. I got all the way to work and realized I forgot my laptop at home. So I had to turn around and go all the way back home to get it. Not a great way to start the day. But…….

I got to drive into this spectacular sunrise!! So I pulled over and took this photo. Yes, I am one of THOSE people!

But now I’m heading back into work later than normal which throws everything off.  Normally I am here at least an hour before shift change so there aren’t a whole lot of people coming and going.  But just slightly behind schedule, the activity picks up significantly.

The driveway coming in to my place of employment is long and winding. I think it was designed that way so you have to drive slowly and think hard about the long day ahead.  Here is what I was following: Three large men on even larger Harley’s.  Behind them….. a guy on a scooter. Dressed is his North Face jacket and jaunty helmet.  Made me smile.  Made me laugh right out loud when they all pulled in to the motorcycle parking area together and the guys on the Harleys high fived the guy on the scooter as they walked by.

Then……… walking in from the other end of the parking lot, I saw not one but two guys carrying lunchboxes just like this….

No joke.  My guess is they are originals, not knockoffs, and they have been carried through these doors for 30+ years. The quality of lunchbox construction was obviously much higher back then!

And on my way back from the cafeteria, I saw…..

Well, not exactly this guy (since this is definitely not within the dress code policy) but I saw someone with a comb like this sticking out of his back pocket. The famous 70’s back pocket comb! I remember them well. I had a pastel pink one and another one that had orange and yellow and pink sort of melted together. An absolute necessity to keep feathered hairstyles looking super cool!

I have often said that working here has transported me back in time to the 70’s and I keep seeing things that support my theory!

And I'm also thinking it was a stroke of luck that I forgot my laptop at home this morning. Look at all the interesting things I saw, just by running a little bit late! :)

Happy Thursday to all! Thank you for stepping back in time with me and ENJOY the long holiday weekend!!

Keep on smiling!

Oh, To Be Young!!

Today we were in line to check out at a store in the mall. The young sales associate asked the woman in front of us, "Are you Colby's Mom?" Before the woman could answer she went on to tell about how she knew him from working somewhere else and how they have been out "clubbing" together a few times.

 The woman confirmed that yes, she was Colby's Mom.

 

The sales associate said, "I thought so! I saw you two together once and teased him that his Mom looked so young that she really looked more like his sister!"

 

Of course you can imagine that this woman looked really happy with that statement!

 

And the then the sales associate said, "Yeah, but I was really just joking; just giving him a hard time."
 

Ouch..
 

Reminds me of the time a hair stylist told me that she loved my hair style. And then followed up with, "When I get old, maybe I'll be brave enough to try that hairstyle too."
 

Double ouch!

 

But here's the deal. I still took the hairstyle comment as a compliment and the woman in line at the store really did look too young to have a son that was old enough to go out "clubbing"!  So it's all good!

Keep on smiling!