Taking over the World

Today I got to do my Category B jump. It was my 4th jump overall and I need about 25 to get my license. It's getting cheaper each time and soon I will be able to afford more than one jump per paycheck. I got cleared for the next level. I still jump with 2 instructors, but soon I will jump with just one. Then it's on to solo jumps. This makes me nervous and happy, but that is par for the course with skydiving.

Today was also the first time I jumped with clear blue skies. There was not a cloud in the sky and you could see for miles. It was really neat. Every time I have jumped before I had to wait for the clouds to part so I could see the drop zone. Once I waited so long I got to jump at sunset and that was so pretty.

I had so much overtime and some on-call pay on this check coming up on Friday that I should be able to go again next weekend.

You know the one hard part? After I land I have to recall the jump with my instructors, step by step. Sometimes that's hard. I have yet to land on my feet. I will get that eventually. Just keep trying. Isn't that always the way?

I am sick. It started yesterday with a tickle in my throat. Then I woke up at 3am and I couldn't swallow. I had to call in to work, which I didn't want to do. I know it's going to be busy today, and no one really available to cover my shift. Oh well, there is not much I can do about that. I have been in bed all day. I am up right now, but I think I'm going to take a shower and go back to bed. I am hoping this will be a quick illness. Everybody at my job has been sick recently and they keep coming to work and passing it around. If you are sick, stay home! I don't want your funk. I'm going to take my USPA book to bed and stay there.

Today I dropped my car off at the shop for it's last warranty covered repair. This makes me a little nervous/sad. This is the first new car I've ever owned. Let's hope it continues to be wonderful to me. It's a good albeit, boring car. It works for what I need and that's what matters. I want my little sporty car running again. I miss the Z. I miss driving it. When I get some money again, I'll get it up and moving again.

Ever feel like there is something better you could be doing than working on a certain day? Today I'd rather go skydiving. It's pretty outside and I want to jump since I didn't get to go this past weekend. With all the overtime and oncall pay I got for this pay period I should be able to afford a couple of jumps with the next check. Especially since it keeps getting cheaper.

Have a wonderful day!

Halloween was a lot of fun. The whole weekend was pretty fun. I was on-call for Halloween so I had to be good and not drink. So we wandered around downtown, saw a show, sang some karaoke, and overall had a good time. I freaked people out with my costume, so that was good. My friend Stan (who was my head on a stick) got more action from everybody than anyone else. Who knew a head on a stick would be so popular, and he was a last minute addition.



You can't really tell from the pic but I was a ZomBEE for Halloween. I had a bumble bee costume on and then just added some gore which equals a Zombeeee. Silly I know, but it cracked me up.

Hope everyone else enjoyed their weekend. No skydiving for me this weekend it was rainy, meh. Oh well, such is life and until I control the weather I can't do anything about that.

Tomorrow should hopefully be a good day. I'm going to see my friend Dave before he up and moves to another country. Then hopefully get to jump tomorrow. I am up to a Category B jump in my skydiving training. This means nothing to you out there, but just knows that I'm moving closer and closer to a solo jump. At least now I'm not strapped to somebody, but I do have instructors that hold on to me until I open my chute. I have my USPA membership, which comes with a subscription to Parachutist magazine. Neat.

Last night was fun. I went to an old friend's house and watched Orphan and old episodes of the Twilight Zone projected on the back of the house. There were drinks, movies, bonfire, and smores. How lovely.

Tonight it's out for the night, I'm going to dress up in my costume and wander about downtown. I'm on-call and have already been called once today. I am hoping that will be it.

My mood is overall better, I am never good at being grumpy for too long. Long enough for some though. Plus I got a new haircut and color yesterday, so that always helps.

Man I'm in a bad mood right now. It's my day off and I'm going to try and get over it. I did not wake up well and there is too much going on in my head. Sometimes I feel like I just need to get away from it all. Work has been overwhelming this week and that's only part of it. UGH!

So it's Sunday and the weekend is almost over. T-Mobile's Sidekick servers have had a significant meltdown causing all of their customers to lose their data. This is not a good thing. I have had T-Mobile for over 5 years, but this has me rethink keeping their services. I know it was danger that caused the problem, but T-Mobile did not properly communicate with their customers about the problem. Even when I called about it, I was given some half-ass excuse. It bothers me a lot and I am looking for a new phone. They have ceased all sales of Sidekicks, which is a good thing, since they don't seem to have everything under control and can't convince me that it won't happen again. Everything is gone. Your calendar, address book, notes, email, photos, everything. It really sucks.

On a good note. I bought a bicycle this weekend. It's a 1962 Sears Spaceliner. It's all red and chrome and weighs about 20 pounds. It's pretty spiffy and hopefully one day I will be able to pedal it up a significant hill. Right now I'm just looking to get up little hills right now. I like it though, and it made me happy to buy it. I got it the same way I got my first car. I bought it from a dead guy. I was actually thinking about it before he died, then didn't hear from them so I thought it got sold. Then a couple weeks later his wife sent me an email saying she was sorry no one got back to me sooner, but her husband had just died. I was surprised she even emailed me. So I met her and I liked the bike, she told me the price her husband had said he would go down to, and I bought it. Kind of a weird transaction, but the lady was really nice.

So there was my weekend. Now tomorrow it's back to work. I'm staying at my boss' house while he is out of town and taking care of his dog. All three dogs have been running around like crazy. Kaya tried to swim in their small water garden. That was not good. Hopefully the workweek will go okay, I am not looking forward to it right now. Although next weekend will be good. Skydiving on Friday and Social Distortion on Sunday, that will be good.

I just signed up for my AFF (Accelerated Free Fall) Ground School for October 16th at 9am. I'm so excited!!! I think when I jump this time I will not be attached to anybody. How exciting and terrifying.

Technology has not been going well in my house recently. My computer has been acting a little goofy sometimes. It's a Macbook Pro and a few years old, but it only annoys me infrequently so that part is okay. The TV in the bedroom became possessed recently. The remote stopped working first. Then if tried to change the channels on the actual TV (you know, stand up and walk across the room) it went berserk. If you pressed the down button it went up a couple channels, then turned off. If you hit the up button it went up a couple channels then started to search for channels like it was a new TV. Just weird I tell ya. That problem was remedied by me driving around town looking for an open box buy TV. Then we went to hhgregg and found a 22" Toshiba LCD with a DVD player for $218, it was originally a $400 TV and nothing is wrong with it except is was missing a box I was going to throw away, I'll take it. So that worked out well.

Now the cell phones. I have 2 cell phones. One I've had for years and it's been changed over to a NC number, and month or so ago a huge crack formed across the front. Well phooey. I like that phone, it's a Motorola KRZR and it's always had good sound quality. I guess I will eventually replace it when the screen falls of or something. Then I have my California number. I haven't given it up because I still own a house there, and I've had the number for almost 10 years. It makes it a hard number to give up. It's a T-Mobile Sidekick, and I have it only on a basic data plan right now. I can make call I just get charged per minute. If you call it there's a voicemail directing you to my new number. So that has worked out well until this past week. Danger, who runs the servers for the Sidekick, has been down. I had no data service for at least 5 days. Now it's sporadic, and I know the emails still aren't coming through. It's getting frustrating. I really hope they get it fixed soon, or I am going have to change something there. Plus the new puppy Thor ate Clay's Blackberry, 2 months before he's eligible for the upgrade pricing. The phone still worked for the most part, the screen got busted. Luckily he was sent an old Blackberry so we could restore all his info. Whew.

So each piece of technology in my life is slowly getting replaced recently. I guess it was time for my upgrade.

EDIT: Oh and the paper shredder died.

I guess that title has two meanings. I love Fall season, because everything starts to cool off. I can wear jeans and my hoodie again. The leaves start to change color and it makes everything look so pretty. I missed that a lot living in Southern California, we don't get a true Fall season. We have rainy season and fire season. The rest of the year it's sunny and 72 degrees. I know it sounds nice on paper, but after a few years it gets old.

On the other hand I like the fall out of an airplane! No wait, I love the fall out of an airplane. I went skydiving again this past Sunday. It was my second jump and it was still tandem. I got to jump at sunset, which was awesome in the literal sense of the word.nothing is more beautiful than a sunset 13,000 feet above the ground. The instructor said I passed on to the next level, so next time I won't be strapped to an instructor. I have to go to AFF ground school and get a membership to USPA. I love this sport and I can't wait to go again, just got to wait for payday. Since my next jump has extras with it, it cost alittle more. Only 22 more jumps before I get a license. Woohoo!

Currently I am sitting on the beach and listening to the ocean. I NEEDED this vacation. It's been a rough year and the past two weeks weren't so hot either. Last year my vacation involved going to L.A. and working on the house so I could try and sell it. That didn't work out so hot, but at least it's rented. Although last month my tenants did not pay rent, which sucked big time. I had just gotten to the point where I didn't worry about the house all the time. Luckily they finally paid, this past week. They have worked out a deal with the property management people to get caught up. So that's good now. Also about two weeks ago I had a patient die during surgery. I have gone through in my mind a thousand times everything that happened that day and could anything I have done changed the outcome. Maybe, maybe not. Unfortuantely I will never know the answer. Needless to say I needed a chance to unwind. I am slowly relaxing and today I'm feeling pretty good. The dogs are driving me a little nutty, but they are having fun. Kaya has gone swimming in the ocean, and Thor just isn't big enough to go out there with her.

Vacations are good for the soul. No family, no responsibilty, just time to do nothing and enjoy it. I think it may be time for a cocktail. Dinner has been cooked on the grill every night and it's all been wonderful. I think my next vacation will be somewhere farther away. Plus a week after I get back, I'm going skydiving again.Bonus!!!

Yesterday I got to jump out of a plane. It was FANTASTIC!!! It was better than I could ever describe and I highly recommend anyone try it. There is nothing better than reaching out out and holding the clouds in your hand. I am definitely going again. So here is my goofy video for your viewing pleasure. A storm was rolling in and they almost called us back in right before I jumped. After I landed we saw lightening a few minutes later, so i barely beat the storm. When I was in the air I could see the rain coming. It was truly the most amazing thing I've ever done. Literally on cloud nine.

So I did not go skydiving this weekend. I got all the way to the first briefing, the next step was to meet the instructor and suit up. Then, the sky opened up and it began raining. Actually it was pouring, with strong winds blowing. Not so good for jumping out of a plane. So I had to reschedule. It made me sad, but I'll try again. I really wanted to do it. The neat part was there was a skydiving competition that day, so in the morning I got to see some neat formation jumps.

Today I set up a reservation for my very first skydiving jump. It will be a tandem jump, hopefully the person strapped to me will not hear me scream on the way down. So next Saturday I will plummet to the earth at a high rate of speed, on purpose. I opted to pay the extra bucks for video and photos. I will definitely post them. I'm so excited! It's something I've always wanted to do and just going to go for it.

Everyone deserves a friend of their own species, including Kaya. She always loves going to stay the night at her friend Stella's house, but would be so incredibly sad when she got home. This prompted us to go down to our local shelter and get her a friend.

( Meet Thor (he may be a Lemon Beagle mix)... )

Emails From Crazy People

Michael Jackson is supposedly going to buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, which the media keeps saying is in the Hollywood Hills. Forest Lawn is within walking distance of my house in Los Angeles, just around the corner actually. It is not the Hollywood Hills, until this week. So maybe next time I sell my house I can say it's in the Hollywood Hills, or "Michael Jackson" adjacent.

It's been a while since I've written anything. There's been lots going on, but I haven't felt like writing at all. Right now I'm trying to refinance my house in Los Angeles. Since I can't sell the durn thing I might as well make it work out for me. I was one of those people that got an ARM and it adjusted, quite a bit over the past couple of years. So now I'm trying to get it handled now why the rates are low. Plus, as an added bonus, it will get my ex-husband off my title and my mortgage. At least that way I get all the credit for paying for it. Tomorrow my tenant is nice enough to meet with the appraiser. I am intrigued as to what they will say since it's the first appraisal since I've done the remodel. Let's hope for good things.

On an unrelated note, I am just tired. It's a little after nine and I think I might just go to bed. I would also like a salad. The dog does not want to stop barking, oh well. Such is life.

Recently we were house sitting for someone and taking of their dog Stella. She's some kind of mutt dog that looks like she may be part bat. There was another dog there named Rosie, who was a fat, happy Lab dog. I think Kaya found her long lost best friend that weekend. Kaya and Stella played non-stop for three days, minus the naps we forced them to take. Literally they would go from 7 in the morning until 11 at night. It was quite amusing and Kaya slept for a day afterwards. It is too bad that Stella doesn't live in our neighborhood, because i would let them play together every day.

Anyhoo here's a video for your enjoyment:


I guess I will write a real entry here sometime soon. There has been lots going on, but sometimes it needs to play out in your head before it comes out in words.

You have to love the creativity of this. I wish they had left it up so I could have sen it in person. It was put up in the construction area of Hillsborough St.