Help! And also an adventure.

     Ok, I'm finally getting to the big post.  This will be the first time I am posting pictures.  A few weeks ago, which is when I was actually going to post my last post, we were supposed to take the Cub Scouts to the Japanese Sunken Gardens and then for a "hike" in Brackenridge Park.  Only one boy showed up so we decided to postpone the visit so that more boys would be able to get the achievements we were going to be working on.  The purpose of going to the Sunken Gardens was in place of a requirement they have to go to a botanical garden and learn about plants.  The Botanical Gardens while beautiful are very expensive and the Sunken Gardens are free.  The problem is that the plants at the Sunken Gardens are not labeled so we were pretty much just going to be looking at the plants and hoping the kids thought they were interesting.

     Well, Marley was actually at work since it was a Saturday morning we were planing this activity and when we decided to postpone I decided to take a walk around the gardens myself and take pictures of the plants to that I could find some information on the plants to actually tell the Cub Scouts about when we actually do have the activity.  So I have all these pictures but I don't really know what any of these plants are and I was hoping since I know some people who know about plants that they would be able to help me identify these plants. I tried Googling them and may have found out what some of them are but it's hard to say.

P.S. If you click on the pictures it should give you a full size view of them.

P.P.S. I tried to remove all the duplicates but there are a lot of pictures so let me know if I missed any.

1) Looks like a rose bush.

2) Some kind of grass maybe.

3) Common flower plant in Texas, tall with yellow flowers, possibly Mexican Mint Marigold.

4) Coral Honeysuckle? or Hummingbird Bush?

5) 

6) Purple Heart

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11) This one looks like Bear Grass

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13) Ok you can't tell from the picture but I do know this one-Bamboo.

14) Fir Tree?

15) Dusty Miller

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29) Marigolds?

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33) Pretty sure this is Hibiscus.

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51) The only plant that was labeled-Verbena Homestead Purple

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berries from 53

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58) Not the kind that close up when you touch them.

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61) Red Bog Lilly?

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66) Ball Moss

67) Lindheimer's muhly grass?

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78) Blue Grama grass

79)

80) Powdery Thalia

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Closeup of berries and blossoms of 82.

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88) Purple and Green Coleus

89) Foxtail

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105) Texas Lantana

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113) Victoria Lily Pad?

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116) Spider plant + something else

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120)

Music & Questions

     I have been thinking a lot about music lately.  I used to have music in my life constantly but that is not such an easy thing when you live with another person who doesn't always like the same music that you do.  Also, we've been going through some rough times lately and I haven't felt like singing or listening to music around the house like I did when I was in college.  I've decided recently that I want to record music but I can't afford to go to a music studio so I downloaded a music editing program and it looks pretty cool.  My problem at this point is that I'm intimidated about signing when Marley is around.  Sure I could go on stage in front of a thousand people and perform for hours with no problem but for some reason performing for 1 person in the comfort of my own home is very scary.  Even if he's not really listening to me and is actually doing homework or watching tv and even if this is the man I love more than anything else in the world and would be very supportive of this idea if I had the guts to tell him about it.  My other problem is that I still sound like a fifteen-year-old over the phone or on recordings.  I hate how my "electronic" voice sounds.  This has sometimes even caused problems at work because people assume I'm too young to know what I'm talking about just because I sound like I'm very young.  I'm hoping that somebody will read this and tell me how I can make my voice sound deeper on the recordings the way it sounds to me when I sing and speak. (I really hope how I sound on recordings is not how I sound to everyone else in real life...)

     I've been thinking about music so much because it makes me happy & I want to be happier & express the fact that I feel happier so that I can remember it better which will hopefully make me even happier.  I've been trying to decide what to record.  I think it would be really fun to do a children's album.  I have lots of friends and relatives that I do not get to see very often and maybe they would like to have a new children's album for their kids to listen to?  I also have some nieces and nephews that I don't get to see very often and want them to know me better.  I grew up listening to several Rosenshontz cassette tapes that I loved, and I think it would be awesome if my kids could grow up with these songs too.  (A quick Google search to verify the spelling of the name resulted in awesome and distressing news.  They sell their music on CD on Amazon!! :) There were 3 more albums that I never knew existed. :(  My whole life I've had to live without this music that I know I already love.)  So basically I'm just not sure what to record.

     My last thought was on music that I like to listen to, I've always had a theme song for chapters in my life and a lot of my theme songs have been Jason Mraz songs.  I had a whole list of my favorite lines from his songs and somehow Google did not save the list.  It took me probably an hour or so to get the list and it was very distressing when the list did not save & I was not able to post this.  So here I am trying again because I do want to post this and also because I had other things I wanted to write about.

A list of my favorite Jason Mraz lyrics in no particular order:

I'll Do Anything

 "And if you're looking for a boy with a voice, well baby I'm single"

 

The Remedy (I Won't Worry)
"When I fall in love I take my time
There's no need to hurry when I'm making up my mind
You can turn off the sun but I'm still gonna shine"

 

Sleep All Day
"oh what a lovely day to have a slice of humble pie"

Too Much Food
"You can say that I'm one curly fry in the box of the regular
Messing with the flavor oh the flavor that you savor
Saving me for last but you better not eat me at all
Living in a fast food bag making friends with the ketchup and salt
People say that I'm crazy for not moving on to better things
Instead I'm sitting around trash talking with the onion rings
But it's much too soon to leave this easy life
Pass me the spoon. Pass the analytical knife"

 

Life Is Wonderful
"It takes a night to make it dawn
And it takes a day to make you yawn brother
And it takes some old to make you young
It takes some cold to know the sun
It takes the one to have the other

And it takes no time to fall in love
But it takes you years to know what love is
And it takes some fears to make you trust
It takes those tears to make it rust
It takes the dust to have it polished"

 

Wordplay
"I built a bridge across the stream of consciousness
It always seems to be a flowin'
But I don't know which way my brain is goin'
Oh the ryhmin' and the timin'
Keeps the melodies inside me
And they're comin'
Till I'm running out of air
Are you prepared to take a dive into the deep end of my head
Are you listening to a single word I've said"
 

Did You Get My Message?
"Do you ever wonder what happens to the words that we send
Do they bend, do they break from the flight that they take
And come back together again with a whole new meaning
In a brand new sense, completely unrelated to the one I sent"

 

Mr. Curiosity
"I'm looking for love this time
Sounding hopeful but it's making me cry

Love is a mystery"
 

I'm Yours
"So I won't hesitate
No more, no more.
It cannot wait,
I'm sure.
There's no need to complicate.
Our time is short.
This is our fate,
I'm yours."
 

Lucky
"They don't know how long it takes
Waiting for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye
I wish we had one more kiss
I'll wait for you, I promise you, I will

Lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Lucky we're in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday"
 

I'm Yours

 "I've been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror
And bending over backwards just to try to see it clearer
But my breath fogged up the glass
And so I drew a new face and I laughed.

I guess what I'll be saying is there ain't no better reason
To rid yourself of vanities and just go with the seasons.
It's what we aim to do.
Our name is our virtue."

 

Love For A Child
"What about taking this empty cup and filling it up
With a little bit more of innocence
I haven't had enough, it's probably because when you're young
It's okay to be easily ignored
I'd love to believe it was all about love for a child"
 

I Won't Give Up
"'Cause even the stars they burn
Some even fall to the earth
We've got a lot to learn
God knows we're worth it
No, I won't give up

 

I don't wanna be someone who walks away so easily
I'm here to stay and make the difference that I can make
Our differences they do a lot to teach us how to use
The tools and gifts we got, yeah, we got a lot at stake"

(Fun Fact: I'm Yours was the song Marley & I danced to for our first song at our reception.  

Lucky was they song Jeremy & Lauren used.)

The Bee

     So it's that time of year again when I think about new things and the meaning of life and what my goals are and I was thinking about how I never write in my blog and I realized that some of the reasons why I don't write are because I feel like when I write it should be meaningful and profound or tell a great story about my day but usually what's floating around in my head is nowhere near profound or even something people might find interesting, so rather than have everyone believing I am some kind of nut case (which I probably am) I just don't write.  But my cousin Amy recently had a book published (Empty Nest ) and that has gotten me thinking about my own writing and so there are a lot of things that I want to say but today I just want to talk about The Bee.

     Wednesday morning I got in my car to go to work and as I was pulling out of the parking lot I noticed there was a bee on my windshield.  I wondered where the little guy had come from and what made him decide to take a break on my car.  As I started driving away I wondered how long he would hang on & if I should drive slower so I didn't accidentally break his wing or something.  I presume the bee is a he because I have been told that female bees don't leave the hive, that the queen sits around all day having babies & the other female bees are basically the nurse maids for all the eggs/larvae/whatever the next stage in bee life is.

     As I got farther down the road I began to be worried about the bee.  He wasn't really moving & I worried that he might already be hurt or dead & just stuck to my windshield.  I had to force myself to not turn on the windshield wipers at this thought for fear of doing the bee further harm.  I did finally see the bee adjust his grip at one point so I new he was alive but he still made no moves to leave the car and I started to worry that he was going to get too far from home and never make it back to his hive again.  This made me wonder if he had a little bee family somewhere.  Just because only the queen has the babies doesn't mean he doesn't have a sweet bee wife and adopted children out there somewhere.  Or friends maybe, who are looking for him.  Which caused all sorts of weird imaginary bee scenarios to play out in my mind.

     By the time I made it onto and then off of the highway I began to feel a sense of pride in the bee that he was able to hold on for so long.  I marveled at the strength of his legs and the little hairs bugs have on their feet that let them keep their grip on surfaces that to humans seem smooth and non-porous.  I wondered at how he could keep his wings in place and at how much effort that might take for a bee and how strong his wing muscles must be.  I began cheering on the bee in my mind secretly hoping he could go the distance and make it all the way to work with me but worried again that if he did he wouldn't be able to find his way home since he was riding on my car and not flying.  (I'm not sure what kind of GPS system bees have in their brains and if he would be able to fly back home by some kind of homing beacon or if they make a map in their brain as they fly to find their way home again.)

     This made me think about what would happen if he didn't make it home.  Would he die of loneliness?  Would he find a new hive to go and live with?  If he did find other bees would they take him in or treat him with suspicion?  Is there some kind of adoption program for bees that have wandered from their hive & can't make it home again?  Is this a common thing for bees to not make it home or do they always make it back?  I hope that bees have better sense than humans and that if he does end up in a new hive they take him in and give him a new job and become friends with him.  Or maybe help him get back to his original hive, or would it be swarm?  I pictured myself as a wizened old bee discovering him flying aimlessly around in sorrow at his loss and taking him back to my house & feeding him some bee tee and helping him get back on his feet.

     And then I finally made it to work with the bee still in the same spot on the windshield and I found myself wanting to sit in the car and wait for the bee to fly away so I could make sure he was ok.  I didn't actually do that, I had to go into work before I was late.  But it was really tempting to stay, I've never had a bee adventure before.

     When I got out of work 9 hours later I had forgotten completely about the bee but I did notice that he was no longer there when it started sprinkling and I had to turn on my windshield wipers.  I first checked the spot to see if the bee was accompanying me home.  He was not, and it was safe to turn them on.  I wonder what happened to the bee, I hope he gathered lots of pollen and made it back home safely.  As I'm typing this I remember a different bee that I saw at work on my lunch break today (not actually today since it's after midnight, but I think you know what I mean).  I had decided to eat in my car because sometimes I just get tired of being in that building so much & sometimes I need some peace and quiet.  I had eaten a pear & put the core in the cup holder between the seats since that was the only spot without fabric on it.  As I was about to go back inside a bee flew into the car, I didn't think anything of it because of the pear & managed to shoo him out of the car so he didn't suffocate in my car for 4 hours.  Now that I'm remembering both of these bees though I hope it was not the same bee trying to get a ride home.  I hope that both bees will live happily ever after with lives full of whatever they love most. The end.

Goals-Revised

      I've said this before & I'm sure I'll say it again, lately I feel like I'm learning how to live life all over again.  I read this book recommended by an introvert in my book club and it has changed my view of myself.  The book is Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain.

     While I already knew that I was an introvert and because of this there are certain things that I just can't do I didn't realize just how much of an impact being an introvert or extrovert has on a persons life.  This being said I want to revise my goals for the year.  I have realized that there are certain things that I need to be doing in my life to counteract the effects that the extroverted job I have has on my life.

1.) Be better about writing in my blog is going to be changed to do more things that are personal and uplifting to me.  This includes writing in my blog, writing in my journal (already started since I bought my new pens!), decorating the apartment, sing more, make sure I keep the house more tidy so I can be more relaxed at home after work.

2.) The reason I wanted to call people on their birthday was because I wanted people to know that they were important to me and this seemed like a good way to let them know. I want to be the type of person that remembers birthdays.  I would love to be able to send everybody a letter or birthday card on their birthday but even though postage is ridiculously cheep it doesn't fit into my budget at this point in my life.  I chose calling because calling is free since I already have a phone for other reasons but as I learned from reading the book, this is not the best option for me.  I hate talking on the phone, I don't like how spontaneous the conversation has to be & you can't use environmental help for topics of conversation.  A better option for me is to send an email to people on their birthday, I can take as much time as I want thinking of what to say & I can't be interrupted or have the subject changed on me to something I didn't plan on talking about.

3.) I want to change this one to spend more time outside on my breaks so I can de-stress.  All the way at the back of the parking lot there is a field & at one end there are trees.  Whenever I go out there I get so relaxed, being in nature has this effect on me.  Maybe if I go outside more this will help me not be so worn out from work, it will give me the opportunity to recharge in the middle of the day & will be able to focus for on Marley and my home after work.

4.) Pay more attention to personal grooming.  Probably this one will take care of itself once I'm not so constantly stressed out.
 
5.) Try something new.  This one I'm leaving as is.

Birthday Goals

Here I am, back again to review how I did on my goals for the year.


1.) Be better about writing in my blog.
     Major fail on this one, for a while I was working on personal stuff on Friday nights because Marley had game night with my brothers on Friday nights but then that petered out as they all have different lives & their own families to deal with.  We definitely need to work on having a set schedule and to work in some personal time.

2.) Relationships.
     Major fail here as well.  The only person I actually managed to call on their birthday was Earl and he didn't even answer the phone because he didn't save my new number in his phone for some reason...It didn't help that for some reason I thought I could get by without a calendar this year and by the time I realized what a silly mistake that was I couldn't find calendars anywhere except on Amazon for $10 which made me mad because usually I buy one for a dollar or two around new years.  When I finally did find one at Office Max it had no pictures on it & didn't start until July.  And on top of that, I can't find my old calendar to write down everyone's birthday on it.  I'll try again on this one this year.  I did however get up to date on Mimi's blog but that was several months ago so I'm still not current and I've only read here and there from Amy's.

3.) Be more aggressive in my professional life.  This includes getting a better job whether by promotion or a job somewhere else.
     I did succeed in this goal.  I got several raises over the last year and our whole call center actually got promoted which was very exciting and I enjoy my job a lot better with the added responsibilities.  I also got put on the projects team which means that sometimes I get to walk around the call center and help people who have questions and are on long calls with weird issues.  I also have recently begun taking sup calls which means I get to pretend to be a supervisor and talk to angry customers who think I have the ability to override company policy without being fired. Silly customers. :)  I've been trying to get into the success bay which is sort of like being a trainer.  After training new agents are put into Success Bay for 2 weeks where they take calls like they normally do but with closer supervision and help.  I wasn't able to get into that yet due to some attendance issues but now I'm thinking of trying for an actual supervisor again.  One of the guys at work I'm sort of friends with who just became a supervisor a few months ago said there's going to be a supervisor position opening up next month and he thinks I would be really good at it.  Also, the other day at work I took 5 sup calls in an hour & 15 minutes.  I was pretty proud of that.

4.) Pay more attention to personal grooming. 
     I have definitely gotten better and managing my finger & toe nails but not too much better at brushing my teeth twice a day.  On the plus side Marley & I got an electric tooth brush and I actually feel like my teeth are cleaner because it has a much smaller head and gets my small teeth really good.

5.) Try something new
     I wanted to blog about the specific things that I tried but I don't remember what they were, luckily I did actually try a few new things.


All in all I didn't do nearly as good at accomplishing my goals as I wanted to or as good as I have done in the past.  I kind of feel like I've been learning life all over again recently.  I'm going to keep all of these on my list for this year except for number 4 and I'm going to add be more active.  I never thought I cared about how skinny I  was until I stopped being skinny and now I'm just like everyone else.  Although, I secretly think I'm more upset about it because I have to buy new clothes and I don't like spending money or clothes shopping than because I don't like my body shape.  But I do want to be more fit so that when I finally can have kids I'll be healthy enough to take care of them & my arms are not what they used to be when I was in school and carrying things around all the time, I don't want to be dropping babies all over the place, they'll have enough trouble as is with the brains they'll get from Marley & me without having to deal with brain damage because of my weak arms.

Just wanted to post a reminder to myself to follow up on the job post. I got a promotion at work!

Job Stuff

     After working at my current job for 2 years I find myself bored out of my mind.  The job does not change day by day or even month by month.  Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of changes made and happening, ie: how they want us to do the job changes every couple of months, but I've found that they're really just rewording the same requirements that we've always had; the turn over rate at the center is kind of amazing, I had no idea that many people were actively looking for this type of job; also, the diversity of the customer's I speak to everyday is a fairly wide spectrum.  These three "changes" notwithstanding, I basically have found that my day is the same, I can, and sometimes do, take calls in my sleep.  It does not require a lot of brain power, it does not require a lot of physical prowess, and for a lot of people I've dealt with, does not require a lot of common sense.  This image I have of the job now is at great contrast to the image I had when I first got the job.  I don't know if it's still required now but when I was hired you had to pass a multiple choice test that had semi technical questions ranging from computer issues to tv wiring.

     The problem with looking for jobs is that it is equally as boring.  First, you have to find the job posting online because nobody does anything in person anymore. (I've done that approach and all you get when you go into places is: "fill out an application online", "I'll keep your resume on file", and other variations of the same.)  After you find the job posting, wading through several fake postings, several you are over qualified for, and a few you are probably under qualified for you find one that you can legitimately apply to.  Generally have to fill out some kind of profile, which about half the time includes your resume or application information.  Just about all places these days have a tool where you can put in your resume and then it pulls out your information but I've found that the recognition tools are usually so bad that you have to end up typing in all the information by hand anyway.  Once you get through your cover letter and resume information you then fill out the "equal opportunity" information that is for some reason both illegal for the company to know and not know about you and then some questions about your qualifications or things you are willing to do for the job.  This whole process can take up to 2 hours, more if there's a full survey asking under what scenario it would be acceptable for you to steal from the company.  (Thankfully these are not very common these days.)

     Supposing you can maximize the process and memorize your entire work history and resume you can probably find and apply for 1 job an hour.  That's about 8 applications per work day.  I take about 20-30 calls in one day at work.  Assuming I can stomach the hassle of applying for another job after coming home from work and making dinner that only gives me time for 1 or 2 a day.  Using the estimate that it takes 50 applications to get an interview and 5 interviews to get a job, I'm looking at 250 applications before I get a better job.  At 2 applications a day it will take me approximately 125 days to get that job.  If I take a day off for the weekend plus Wednesday we have Cub Scouts, it will take me approximately 25 weeks or 6.25 months to get through all those applications... *head desk