It’s traveling for Turkey Day!! If anyone else is heading out to see family… Be safe out there!!

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Wishing my Mom a Happy Birthday today, too!

I have watched people drop burning cigarettes on a carpeted floor and squish it out with the toe, instead of putting it out in the ash tray, leaving a burn mark. I’ve also watched people who chew, spit their dip on the same floor. I have seen people grab a handful of napkins, wipe off a table and then throw the napkin on the floor. A pet peeve of mine is people who put their gum in the ash tray without wrapping it in paper first.

Cleaning the bathrooms is a whole new adventure of, “Do you do this at home!?!” I won’t EVEN go into that here in case you happen to be eating while you read this.

One evening, I was in the process of clearing tables,  when a man sat down at one I hadn’t gotten to yet, and while arguing with his wife, violently brushed all the half-full glasses of drinks off the table and onto the floor. And last Christmas, I saw a guy just start pulling down the stockings we had decorating the edge of the stage and throwing them on the floor. Laughing the entire time. Like we’d hung them there just for the amusement of his destruction.

As I wiped down tables yesterday, I was chatting with a woman who waitresses at a local restaurant. We were discussing how you can easily pick out the people who have at some point worked in customer service (or who know people who have)*. They’re the ones who will make their tables neater before they leave. They’re the better tippers. They’re the ones who will actually come and tell you when there is something wrong — well ahead of it becoming a huge issue.

Now, please don’t get me wrong. I know that these people I’ve mentioned here make up maybe 10% of any customer base. It’s unfortunate that 10% can ruin the night for others. And to that 10% I just want to stand up and go, “REALLY!??! Do you act like this at home!?”

*Okay, this is a big generality. There are those who are just more aware, and who do realize, “I’d want someone to do this for me.” Doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve worked in customer service. But… they’d be dang good at it if they did!

I’m not afraid. Its just not high on my list of things to do. As in, not even on my bucket list to be knocked off it.

HOWEVER.

I married a man who happens to love motorcycles. Who has had bad accidents on them, and yet still wants to get right back on. There’s something admirable about that… not letting anything stop him from doing something he loves.

Not even a wife who practically wanted to burst into tears over plans to go riding yesterday. Because that “just not interested” turned out to be, “Scared to death.”

When a friend offered us his bike for the afternoon, my husband became more excited than anyone’s kids after Halloween, staring at a big bowl of candy. I couldn’t not go. I couldn’t deny him this excitement. He wanted to share this big part of himself with me, and I appreciated that more than I could share under the quivering, shaking, terrified child I became.

We went to pick up the bike. We got bundled up (since even though it was upper 60s, it would be chilly on the bike), my husband plopped a helmet on my head and… I swung a leg over and had a death grip on my husband as we took off.

We hooked up with some friends to go riding together, and off we went hitting back roads around Nashville. It took awhile, but I slowly released the death grip I had on Hubby’s jacket. I even got confident enough to dig out my phone and take a few photos.

Half-way through our travels, we stopped to have a light lunch together. Fighting daylight, we didn’t linger long before we took off again. Getting back on the bike, I figured out a more comfortable way to sit, and my confidence went even higher.

As the sun started to set (darn time change), it started to get chilly. We stopped to stretch our legs for a moment and come up with a plan. We headed for a local bar for a post-ride drink before calling it a night.

I faced a fear, and I conquered it. I have to thank my husband for being so adamant we were going, despite my fears. I didn’t fall off. We didn’t crash. We only  had ONE vehicle ignore a Yield sign and pull out in front of us — but then, that happens ALL THE TIME here, so it was just annoying versus scary. I didn’t freeze. And… dare I say it? I had fun.

Yes. I had fun. There. I said it.

I. Had. Fun.

And I will be happy to do it again sometime.

What is your favorite treat to yourself when you are sick?

Me? Long soaking baths.  Now its your turn!

As you possibly saw on my Wordless Wednesday post yesterday, Lightroom is in my hot little hands. JOY!!

Only, its not on my laptop. Because my 1.5 month old laptop decided to have the terrible twos and not load the program nor anything on CD/DVD. So, I come to my readers for some technical help. Here is what I posted to the HP forums looking for help there…

HP Pavilion g6-1b50us Notebook PC
Windows 7 64-bit

I’ve only had my laptop about a month and a half. To transfer items from my old laptop to the new one, I used the CD/DVD drive to copy items over. It worked beautifully at that time.

Tonight, I went to install a new program I just received. Its on CD-ROM. I placed it in the drive, it popped up with the “run or open” prompt. Pretty straight forward and normal. I clicked run/install and… the drive started making noises like it was either off balance or hung up or… something. After waiting much longer than it should have taken to read the disc, I just clicked the button to open the drive (and essentially cancel the install). No problem, the disc slowed like normal and the drive popped open.

Hmmm… So I did a reboot. Tried again. The run or open prompt came up. I canceled it this time, and went into the computer and right clicked the CD/DVD drive (where it showed the proper title of the disc) and clicked open. IT made the weird noises again and… nothing. I closed out the computer prompt, tried to open the drive again to stop it, and this time i had no luck. It just… sat there. So I ended up doing reboot.

Reboot. Got the disc out. Decided to try the disc in a different computer. Maybe I got a bad program. Nope. It worked like a charm, ready to install there.

I went BACK to my HP, tried the disc a third time. This time… nothing. No prompt. I went into Computer. No CD title in the CD drive. I clicked on it, and it started spinning (again making the weird hung up/off balance noise) and eventually came back saying there is no disc in the drive.

My various steps to fix things have included:

– making sure all the drivers, BIOS, etc. updates are installed. All are up to date.

– Did a system restore point a couple weeks back to see if that helped. No luck. Undid the restore point.

– Microsoft Fix-It thing. Couldn’t do anything because it would never read that there was a disc in the drive in the first place!

– Did HP System Troubleshooting. Same problem as the Microsoft Fix-It EXCEPT when I used a blank CD-R.

– Eventually did get it to also read a DVD-R disc. Seems willing to write to disc, but not read???

– Uninstalled the DVD/CD drive in Device Manager. Let it reinstall the drivers on its own.

– I’ve tried an audio CD, a video DVD, the program I am trying to install, and the blank discs. The only things it will read now if the blank discs. (And even then, it takes a few minutes to do that.)

In device manager, it is listed as “hp DVDRAM GT31L SATA CdRom Device.”

I’m at my wits end. ANY suggestions I’ve not tried?

Perhaps someone out there can help? Or do I just need to have it fixed under warranty? Or do I need to find a local IT person who can work their mojo on it for me? I prefer to fix it myself, if I can but I know I have limitations in my abilities. (If I didn’t, it would be fixed already, right??)

Help?

Yeah, that was me a few days ago. I fell asleep on the couch for about 15 minutes, and when I woke up my head felt it was twice its size. It was THAT moment. So, I started my battle with my old faithful of sinus rinses and apple cider vinegar tonic. Musicinex and a couple doses of Sudafed PE. I also take Zyrtek and Flonase daily.

A couple days of teetering between okay and not-okay, I woke up with a full-fledged cold. And the crappiest part of it?

My husband was on the road. And Mom is 800+ miles away. I was on my own.

What is it about being sick that just makes you want to be doted on? To want to just wrap up in a blanket, sit on the couch, eat popsicles and watch mindless TV. To want to have someone else make you supper, and bring you a cold glass of water when you just don’t want to get up off the couch.

Oh, its not the first time I’ve been on my own while under the weather. It won’t be the last time. But it still makes me WANT to turn into a whiny little kid. Even at 30.

Now the funny thing about a cold is that there’s really nothing you can do about it, and within that, I had no real good reason to call out of work. (Trust me, though, if I’d felt I was contagious I’d have called out. ) And, you know what? I am glad I had to work. A hot shower, flat ironed hair, make-up and just being up and among people made me feel better. It made me forget about how big my head felt. It motivated me to keep going.

I followed a work evening with a day of sleep, water, Muscinex, Vitamin C, Sudafed and sinus rinses. Mostly sleep. And as a result, I am running at about 90% now. I alternated sleep with house work today (and hubby is home, so he went to the grocery store for me and instead of popsicles brought me a six-pack of a new seasonal beer — I love that man!), and I think I should be running at full speed again tomorrow (or darn close!).

We’re going into Fall, though, which usually means sicky time for me. I’ll try to keep the whining to a minimum. Try.