My New Love – a late Wordless Wednesday post

(adding a few words to say RUN don’t walk to the store to buy these chips—I HATE baked chips normally, but these- FANTASTIC!! Full of flavor that is baked in – not sprayed on top like most chips.)

Get more info here.

A Storm’s a Comin’!

Some (OK, most) of you know I am a HUGE weather buff. When I was in high school, I even job-shadowed the local weather guy(The Wonderful Weather of Woz. Seriously.) and wrote my “what I wanna do when I grow up” papers on becoming a meteorologist.

I applied and was accepted to University of Oklahoma (side note: does anyone else sing the song from the musical to spell the state?? Anybody??), one of the best schools in the nation for storm chasing and meteorology.

Then I found out that it would include lots of math and physics.

Yeah, I am not good at that stuff.

So, I decided to do Communications instead, hoping to become a weather bunny (ie: someone who reports the weather for the news, but not AMS-American Meteorological Society - certified).

I fight global poverty for a living. Not the same but still interesting work none the less.

I still take on the role of “weather announcer” at work, sending out watches and warnings to the staff and giving updates throughout the day.

Snow storm coming? Check your email- I sent you an update! Hailstorm headed our way? I will let you know and send you the latest radar images!

While I am fascinated by weather, I have a love/hate relationship with severe storms. They scare me to death, and I get a stomachache each time they are approaching (not to mention the horrible migraines I get from the barometric changes).

But for some reason, when I move to new places, I am initiated by bad weather.

Most of my spring and summer storm seasons as a child were spent in the bathtub with my (not wanting to cooperate) cat reading covered with a blanket.

I did that until I read somewhere that the bathtub is on of the worst places to be during a storm (you could be electrocuted if your house is hit by lightning) so I changed my venue to the internal hall closet.

Yes, I was am kinda a freak.

One Mother’s Day when I was 7 or 8, I spent the course of 8 hours driving Interstate 80 home to Rock Island, IL from Montezuma, Iowa with my mom and her cousins hitting a new tornado warning every county we travelled through. The storms were following us.

I spent the whole hot car ride under a scratchy blanket scared to death. We even had to stop at the University of Iowa music building to ride out one particular bad cell.

When we got home, I drug my mattress out to the living room and hit under it while watching the radar and warnings on television.

But I digress.

When I first went to college (in Cedar Rapids), the first night I moved in we had a tornado warning. I spent my first night living away from home in the basement scared to death, getting to know my other freaked out neighbors.

Since today is a furlough day, I spent the day inside the house (other than a run to RiteAid and Wal-mart for supplies) then about 30 minutes ago I checked CNN.com and noticed one of the stories was about “live coverage of severe weather in Atlanta” so I quickly went to my favorite weather website NOAA (www.weather.gov).

There are tornado and thunderstorm warnings all around my house right now.

I stepped outside onto my balcony and snapped a few pictures of the fast moving clouds …

My pictures don’t do the cloud movement justice—the low clouds are moving one direction, and the top ones are moving another. The temperature is about 72 degrees – a perfect recipe severe weather.

Here is my welcome to Atlanta, I guess!

3 weeks in… a progress report

Well, it’s been 3 weeks in my new condo, my new job- my new life. Soon, I will be adding new car to the mix (probably a Honda Fit).

I wish I could say that I love it here and I feel like I am “home”, but I don’t and I’m not.

I am overwhelmed most of the time at work – it feels like I am starting at a whole new organization. No one in my department knows me, my work ethic or my reputation. I find myself inter-office instant messaging my work family in Chicago just to “hear” a friendly/familiar voice.

Don’t get me wrong – there are VERY nice people in the building who have taken me to lunch, ask me to eat with them, people who I bother on a daily basis (hi “M” and “C”!) with incessant questions and random thoughts, and others who I am meeting for the first time who are extremely inclusive. I appreciate every person who has taken the time to reach out and welcome me to HQ.

With that said, unless I see the person 15 times a day, I have a hard time remembering their name. That’s not anything that wouldn’t happen in Chicago though, but I just have to remember 10 times the names now.

I am sad.

I am lonely.

I am tired.

I am having panic/anxiety attacks (recently put on meds to help with that, thank you very much).

I am not sleeping (see aside above – yep more meds).

I am overwhelmed.

I am living in a sea of boxes.

I am not liking what I am doing at work right now.

I feel isolated.

I feel incomplete.

I am trying to be positive about….something. Anything.

So here are 6 things I like about the ATL:

• I am closer to my aunt and cousins
• I have a Washer and Dryer in my unit.
• I have a dishwasher in my unit
• I have covered parking for my car at home
• I like my new gym – and it happens to be in my building and only cost 5 bucks a month
• I finally get a security pass (after 7 years of visiting HQ) to KEEP

Pathetic that all (but one) of my “likes” are objects, right?

I hope in the next few weeks I will begin to get in a better groove and start to meet new people and begin to feel more like myself and more relaxed.

But right now, as my toddler friends might say, “I don’t yike it here”.

Right now?

I just wish I were home. Anybody got a pair of ruby slippers?

Dialog in the Dark

When I moved here, I promised myself I would see if there was an “ATL on the Cheap” type website or book to find interesting things to do, but not have to pay full price to go.

I noticed that in my neighborhood they have this exhibit/experience called “Dialog in the Dark”. This is how the website explains the experience:

The idea is simple: In completely darkened rooms blind people lead small groups of guests through an exhibition in which everyday situations are experienced altogether differently, without eyesight.

A role reversal takes place: sighted people are torn out of social routines and familiar acceptance. Blind people provide a sense of orientation and mobility and become ambassadors of a culture devoid of images. They prove that being blind is a different, interesting way to perceive and lead life and has nothing to do with thoughts of suicide and despair. Everybody shares an unforgettable experience. They feel their own limits, perceptions and gratitude for their eyesight; they come to understand the importance of empathy, communication and solidarity and develop respect for people who see the world through different eyes.

I was intrigued.

I went last Thursday night after work after finding a 40% off coupon online.

When you walk in, they measure you for a cane, then take you into a slightly darkened room where you sit on lighted boxes. As a recorded voice tells you about what you are about to experience, the lights slowly go down until you are in total darkness.

It is sort of scary, sitting in total darkness not knowing what is coming next.

For some reason I was freaked that they were going to all the sudden flash 2 headlights in my face as a joke.

Rest assured, it was nothing like that.

It was an amazing experience and I am so glad I went.

My leader, Roxanne, has only been visually impaired since 2002. She lost sight completely in one eye in 1996, then lost most of her sight in the other in 2002.

She was extremely interesting to talk to to hear about her life and how she copes with every day live as a visually-impaired person.

I won’t tell you what happens inside (incase you decide to go) but I will say that it is fun and interesting to get around obstacles in total darkness.

Let me know if you decide to go!

Not dead…. I promise….

I have just been extremely tired and working my butt off the past few days. I am working on all the set up for a festival we are doing at work and it is taking a lot out of me!

I came home this evening and promptly fell asleep. A two hour nap. And it felt sooooo good.

I have 3 visitors coming next week to see me so I need to get myself in gear. I am really excited that my friends are coming to see me! Next Post: my fun time at dialog in the dark!

What do YOU wanna see?

Is there anything you are DYING to hear about regarding my 48 month vacation in the ATL?

Want to see pictures of anything specific?

Want me to address something that I haven't thought of yet?

Want more picture of Mr More?

Let me know! leave me a comment below or email me.

I want to know what you think! ;-)

Wordless Wednesday