Ahhh! A Day Off

Today has been my day off. When I say day off, I really mean it too. It's not one of those days off that you spend doing things that need to get done, no sir! It's a day off that I'm spending entirely in my pajamas, mostly on the couch. (The gi-normous grin goes here.) I do not plan to leave the house all day, and it feels GREAT!

UPS (all hail the sexy brown shorts) is supposed to stop by today and pick up a phone I am returning because Michael is spoiled rotten and didn't like it. He wanted the phone because it's slim and blue, but it turned out to be more frustration for him than fun, so back it goes! He didn't really need to have two cell phones anyway. So I am spending my day waiting to find out what Brown Can Do For Me. (Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Say no more.)

I don't know why I think those shorts are so sexy. When Michael and I first met, he worked at an oil changing station next door to the 7-Helleven where I worked. His uniform had a pretty basic work shirt (yes, his name was on a patch on his chest), and a pair of navy blue shorts very similar to the UPS shorts. He wore hiking style sneakers with them and his legs were just SO CUTE! They still are cute if you ask me, but some people call him chicken legs. I can't figure out why because his legs are skinny all the way up, while a chicken has big fat thighs. He also used to wear his shirt with the top three buttons undone. When he would come up to the counter with his drink or ice cream or whatever he was buying as an excuse to come flirt with me, I could always see his gold necklace and the very top of his patch of chest hair. Top all of that off with the intoxicating smell of a man who actually works for a living plus the aroma of dirty motor oil, and I'm staring to sound like one sick woman!

Oh well, to each his/her own I guess. I must have been enticing in my bright green apron, I'm sure!

It's so unfortunate that I have been so anti-portrait for so much of my life. I don't have any pictures of myself for a time period spanning almost ten years. There are a few here and there, like a couple of sets of senior pictures. One set was taken after what was supposed to be my junior year at GHS, just before I dropped out of school at 17. The other set was taken at the beginning of what became my senior year at RRHS. About nine months later, I had earned the 12 or 13 credits I needed to graduate and I got my diploma only 2 years late. A fine example of better late than never.

They tell you that having a high school diploma will make your career better. I really haven't seen much difference except that some employers won't even give you a chance if you don't have one. But I had my name on my shirt (on a badge) before I got my diploma, and I have my name on my shirt now. The reason I have the job I have now is because of my extensive work history, and my ability to schmooze. I need to figure out a useful skill and go learn it so that I don't have to have my name on my shirt anymore.

Mike managed to work his way up the ladder in the company he works at now. (No more engine grease smell, dag nabbit!) He went from changing people's oil to now being in charge of the HVAC systems in commercial construction. His name went from being embroidered on his shirt to permanent markered on the "wall of fame" on the port-o-johns on the job site. (You get there when you get to be in charge and the guys under you don't like it when you make them follow the rules.) I'm so proud!

Haha. That's funny! "Work his way up the ladder." I just noticed that. When he hangs the lines of duct, he's like 15 feet in the air! Although he doesn't have as much time anymore to get in there and work like he used to. Now he has to go to foreman's meetings and order supplies and he spends more time telling his guys what to hang and where to hang it. He will have been working for his company for three years about the time our baby comes. He's gone from a helper to a boss-man in such a short amount of time. That just goes to show you what hard work and dedication to excellence can get you. Most of the time he is one of the first HVAC guys at a new job site and one of the last to leave when it's done. The guys above him have always found a job for him to do, even when there isn't a jobsite in the works, Mike has not been laid off. And that's because they know they can count on him.

That is a very comforting thing, with the baby on the way. Heck, the superintendent got him another raise that will go into effect next week. We have really been accepted into the "family" of people who have been in the company for ten years or more, so I think they're planning to keep him. And as much as we disagree on so many issues (he actually LIKES Dubya) I think I'll keep him, too.