Ginger Convention

This is a novella - seriously, but I just wanted to make sure I captured every magical moment...

I arrived on Sunday afternoon to Sea-Tac airport with the graceful fall of delicate snowflakes upon my airplane window. "how delightful!" I thought. As I went to step out of the plane from my first row seat, I saw a blur to my right, an 80+year old man was racing up the aisle from who knows which row and jammed right out as the first one off the plane. I figure if you are that focused and determined, then by all means you deserve to be first off. And when you gotta go, you gotta go. It's just a fact. So, I deplaned and got my bag (no ridiculously stupid mishaps with luggage this year)and I look around for the beloved family members that I am coming to visit, just knowing that in high anticipation of my visit they must have arrived hours early, just waiting for a glimpse of me. I saw no one, so I stood cold and lonely near the door to the outside world which was frickin' freezing (which my husband was so kind to point out that it tends to be that when it's snowing)! After what felt like hours, I went out to the curb and there was the car that I had been waiting for, with the family I had been looking for. My Auntie Nora and my little 1st cousin Avery were there to greet me and get us on our way. Nora of course greeted me with excitement and affection (most everyone does) but Avery was a little wary of me. I wasn't sure why, we had met when she was about 6 weeks old, and had some good times as far as I could remember, but I suppose not good enough because she wasn't sure about my presence on the outset. After a little while she did warm up and gave me a gorgeous smile. She has the biggest eyes and looks just like her momma and Aunt Caroline did when they were babies. I love it. I searched (mostly in vain) for any sign of the blessing that is red hair, maybe as she gets older.

Here she is smilin' for the camera.

We then went to the Calvin Casa and Nora and I got a chance to start our catchups of our lives and we were shortly joined by my (creepy) Uncle Ben. Unkie Benny inherited me as his niece when he married Nora, and what a bonus for him! He is a superb uncle, and quite alot of fun actually. He was a bit unkempt and stinky upon our first contact, apparently cause he played a long, hot and sweaty game of soccer...the day before. um, gross.

Here he is, Uncle Ben...

More talking, more catching up and more laughing. Seriously, whenever I visit these wonderful members of my family, we are essentially laughing from beginning to end. But I digress. We then went out to dinner with Ben's parents along with Zoie (Ben's daughter who is 12, and just delightful, also my cousin!). So, for those of you who know me, know good and well that I am an extremely...let's say...picky eater. So Nora was thrilled with the fact that they got to introduce me to Indian food for the first time in my life. I, on the other hand was a bit apprehensive. Indian food had neither quesadillas nor cereal. But I was pleasantly surprised, I enjoyed myself and the company, and I will even admit, the food. And they had bottomless chai, which was absolutely delicious! Zoie had basically gotten about 4 hours of sleep over the previous 24hrs, so she was a little groggy upon our mealtime. Nora asked her if she remembered me (she's 12, Nora, not 3 jk :) and of course she did, but I more or less received a grunt of welcome. Which is fine, as Jeff is more than willing to share, that's all he gets in the mornings when I don't get much sleep. Wait...scratch that, he gets that every morning, no matter how much I sleep. So, her grunt was no skin off my back. Accepted. At dinner I thought I would try again and asked her what she liked to eat at this particular restaurant. "Stuff" was the answer I got. Which amused me actually, she's 12, no biggie. But then, oh glory me, I remembered I saw her holding a Twilight book in the car. I realized I had the biggest weapon in my arsenal, the love of the book series that most of the tween population considers their Bible. So, I asked her one question about Twilight, and basically for the next hour we discussed the ins and outs and who my first, second, third, and fourth favorite characters were in the book and the movie. I believe our close cousinship has been sealed forever. Thank you Edward and Jacob.

Then it was home to drop off the baby, Benny boy and Zoie, and Nora and I went and met with Auntie Caroline (the third and final redhead in our family currently unless Avery decides to see the light). We met at this great coffee shop that had pages of desserts, and we chose two most wisely and enjoyed them together. The three of us then proceeded to regale each other with tales of our life, leading to more talking and most importantly of all, much laughter, much to the chagrin of the other patrons in the restaurant. Our night drawing to a close, we got up to leave, and I excused myself to go to the restroom and went in and as I was...ahem...using it saw written on the stall "I Love Shannon" so I of course proceeded to take a picture of it, verifying, that yes, I am beloved everywhere. Caroline had also told me that someone wrote "Real Vampires Sparkle" on a stall as an homage of course to Twilight. So I wanted to take a picture of that as well, so basically I creepily hung out in the bathroom waiting for the person in that stall to get out so I could go in (despite the fact that they knew I had already been in there and gone) and take a picture of said scrawl. This of course prolonged my bathroom time, thus leaving Nora and Caroline to assume that I chose to use a public restroom for a more significant bathroom experience. I did assure them however, that was the not the case and I was just taking pictures of the stalls, a much less weird action...maybe...okay, not. Then it was off to the Calvin Casa again so that we could sleep.

The three of us redheads

Normally that is where the story of the day would end, but not on this trip. Nora laid out the air mattress for me to blow up with the electric motor while she got me blankets. So I stand there holding down the button, no biggie right? For a normal person maybe, but I was standing there and I noticed the bed wasn't filling up despite my amazing button pressing. So I asked Nora about it and she discovered that I am, in fact, retarded because the hole at the other end of the bed was still open. Once closed, it filled right up. I have my Masters people, this shouldn't be happening! Then Nora and I wrestled her old backpacking sheet onto the mattress, and then she took great pains and care to make my bed up for me, even tucking under the covers and then dousing, yes dousing and not lightly misting, my bed with linen spray. My bed now not only smells delightful, but is also soaking wet. We are both of course hysterically laughing, so no harm no foul. Off to dreamland I go...

The amazing turn down service I received

The delightful linen spray

The next day held a morning that began with me kicking Nora's butt at boxing on the Wii. I played a Mii character that looked like grandpa Jon (her dad) so I believe that she was able to relieve some childhood anger during the game. But she was still no match for me, who randomly flails my arms and hopes I win. Turns out, that works. A little Mario Kart action and we decide to head to Pike's Place Market, a Seattle tourist favorite. Also a great spot for locals to buy fresh seafood, produce and all the possible accoutrement you may need. Such as the belt buckle I bought for Jeff that says "Open for Business" Clearly a necessity. But first it was a stop at the very first Starbucks. I was home. We got ourselves some delightful drinks and I a commemorative photo so I can one day tell my grandchildren where their grandma's addiction came from.

Here I am. Sad they didn't know my name though.

We then proceeded to enjoy the market, bought some flavored honey - which really, is pretty awesome. Should someone walk around with a jar of honey in their hand with a spoon, we would think they were weird. However, if you put some honey in a plastic stick then you just look like you are enjoying a finer part of life while walking through public places. Zoie had a good time buying various items she deemed as pretty and cool and all the fun 12 year old lingo. All was pretty enjoyable and uneventful, until Zoie bought two pieces of jewelry from one of the local vendors. She came up to me after having made her purchase and I asked her what she bought and she said, "a piece of jade and a leaf" hmmm, a leaf? So I then asked to see said leaf, and she pulled out a delightful, tiny little marijuana charm on a silver chain. Ah, that kind of leaf, just what I suspected. So I then of course proceeded to tell her what it was, and called Nora over to us to confirm (because for some reason Nora is in my mind a consummate professional when it comes to identifying marijuana paraphernalia I suppose). She confirmed it and then took it back to the vendor to explain that Zoie had no idea what she was buying. Luckily, he took it back and let her pick something else out. From there we went and bought some lunch, we went a place that served Pho. Nora was excited to learn I had never had it and that she got to introduce me to yet another food item I had never tried. I actually quite enjoyed it, so she was 2 for 2 at this point. We also stopped and got some super delicious cupcakes for dessert that night. Basically my days had revolved around going from one food or drink item to the next, essentially - the best kind of days! Headed home from there, took a little nap while the baby played in the kitchen with various cleaning fluids...wait, I mean while she also took a nap. Took it easy the rest of the afternoon, which was quite nice. I love getting to go up there and after all the catch up is done, the fun and enjoyment doesn't stop, but we are able to slip into the mode where we can just chill and hang out with each other, which is something I most definitely wish could happen so much more.

Nap Time

Our evening then began as Uncle Jere arrived from Oregon, then Caroline, Grandpa Jon, and Uncle Ben came home and the party started. Nora made us a fabulous meal that would rival Rachel Ray's best, and we all helped her by standing around and talking to each other and playing with the baby of course. We took our jobs as helpers very seriously. It was great having everyone that I never get to see all in one place, just enjoying each others company, making fun of each other (some families hug as a sign of affection, we mock) and generally having a good time. Dinner was enjoyed and cleared and then the night's entertainment truly began. Avery wanted to crawl on the table, and whatever baby wants, baby gets of course (parents and future parents take note). Avery loves to dance and we obliged her by providing her a beat by slapping our hands on the table and she proceeded to dance, and dance, and dance. It was so ridiculously cute and funny that this little 13month old baby had 6 adults in tears and beating a table continuously so she could carry on. I got lots of fun video, which I will include, one even with my Uncle Jere (who is not known to just bust out in random dancing) doing his best to keep up with Avery's grooves.
Avery dancing for us

Letting her do whatever she wants
Helping in the kitchen, obviously

Avery and Uncle Jere

My final evening in Seattle wrapped up with Jelly Belly candy, cheetos puffs, Simpsons, a goodbye to Caroline which included several pictures. One in which I appear to be molesting her, but don't worry, no redheads were harmed in the taking of said pictures. Caroline's boy toy went to take our picture and we all posed as we have all been trained to do, but instead of a flash and a click, it turns out he was taking a little video. So basically we just looked really stupid on the video, but nothing new there. The three of us (and Amy as well) have been looking silly on videos since we were little. Ask me about the jacuzzi video sometime, it's a doozy!

This is being submitted for the Parents of the Year Award. I think they have a good chance

Tuesday morning brought a beautiful dusting of snow on everything and us back to another Starbucks; because Nora really knows how to take care of her guests and we discovered a talent in Avery for eating bananas. It will be a talent that will not be cultivated I am quite sure. We had a delightful time shopping for baby type foods. It was something that had to be very carefully chosen by Nora as apparently Ben tends to enjoy the same foods that Avery does. So we found baby sized options that will deter even Uncle Ben and headed back home. Avery went down for a nappie poo, and we settled into watch the movie Persopolis. Uncle Ben came home early because he used the excuse "I have to see my niece before she leaves for home" I don't believe anyone bothered to ask him just how old his niece was, which I think is for the better. Ben then sent me off with an original song on his guitar. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although from the look on Avery's face in the picture, I don't know if she did...

Basically, I had a super fabulous wonderful awesome amazing time, and I really really really (infiniti) wished I lived closer to this fantastic part of my family. Thank you Auntie Nora, Uncle Ben, Cuz Zoie, and Cuz Avery for your hospitality!! I have so much fun with all of you!!

A nice change of pace

Ever feel like things are so happy and good that you wonder when the rug will get pulled out from under you? I can’t help but feel that way about work at this point. And who really ever gets to say that about their work? That’s one of the problems too, I don’t understand how it can be normal that I enjoy my work so much. And the fact that I actually enjoy all of the people that I work with. some of them, quite a bit actually. Despite my increased efforts over the last ten years to not make any new friends, I have made quite a few here at work. I feel very lucky to have connected to those that I have. One has brought a smile to my face almost since the first few days of my working here. I laugh more than once every single work day, oftentimes, it is much more than that, and full real laughter. Not that polite office laughter, but laughing to the point where my superiors might actually think I am not doing any real work (shhh, don’t tell them, but sometimes I’m not…like now) How do I reconcile this idea of such utter enjoyment at work with the common notions and ideas of what I know work to be. And how janky is it that feeling good about and at my work makes me feel apprehensive rather than just happy. I feel appreciated, I feel challenged, I feel like I belong to something bigger, and that I can only get better from here. It is refreshing to feel this way, hopefully I can just enjoy and not always be waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Shift Change

This is my last Saturday with my guys. And yes, they are MY guys. I have been with this team almost since I started here at the PD and I have so much fun with them and will miss them very much when the shift change occurs. I will stay on the same work days but have an entirely new team. I am totally fine with the guys I am going to have for the next six months (two of them for the next year), they are all very nice and cool and my new Sgt was a dispatcher for ten years, so it will be a great learning environment. But I will still miss my guys.

They have been, from the very beginning, very supportive and patient while I have been learning the ropes. I have passed many a slow hour just hanging out and talking with my officers and getting to know them alot better. A significant moment of happiness for me was when I went out on my own and no longer had my trainer with me (who is good friends with everyone at the PD as she has been here 12years), the officers still came down to talk to me. Why would that matter? Cause that meant that they were not just putting up with me because they really wanted to talk to my trainer, but when she was gone, they still wanted to come and talk to me. Silly, I know, but it was a nice feeling. They have all also expressed the wish that I was going to continue being their dispatcher upon the shift change. A nice feeling for being so new and unlearned, to know that I am still wanted despite my limitations.

I have had so much fun with these guys. Case in point: today we decided to see who could get the most "meows" on the radio. For those who have seen Super Troopers, it is a running gag that they try to slip in the word "meow" wherever they can without someone noticing it. So that's what we have done today. FYI the game has progressed throughout the day and we are all now tied at 2 meows. We are hoping that we are so smooth that Admin doesn't pick it up and kick our butts for it. Meh. When you want to have fun, you just gotta push it sometimes. :)

My Sgt is someone who gives me more positive than negative feedback, even when pointing out or correcting my mistakes. He says he feels safe out in the field with me as his dispatcher and I just can't ask for more than that. Because I have come to like my guys so much that my goal when they go out on calls is to get them there safe, and get them back home safe. Not that if I didn't like them, I would leave them hanging or anything...just my motivation is that much stronger and more personal.

It has been one of the most hectic and busiest days since I started working here, and I have just had so much fun because of the great team I get to work with. I will be sad upon shift change because of what I am losing. It really is a bummer because when an old teammate goes to the other side of the week, you really don't get to see them. But, as I said before, I do look forward to my team to come, and the fun I can have with them. I just love my job and I feel like my team has simply been the frosting on the cake.

****final tally of meows: me - 4, 11 - 2, 13 - 3. I win!****

Random Chance

That is apparently the technical medical term for why it didn't work AGAIN!!!!

Where to go from here? I am hoping my hens will soon have alot more in common with the shoreline of Alaska. (if you didn't understand that last line of gibberish email me)

Happy Birthday to me!!!

I received a phone call today from my dad singing "Happy Birthday" to me. For those of you who are familiar with my birthday, you are right, it isn't currently April. No, he was singing Happy "you are a Taylor" Birthday. Every year on January 6th, one or the other of us calls the other and sings and celebrates the year that he adopted me as his very own kidling. When I was younger we would celebrate the event with a cake, not the traditional birthday cake but a cornbread cake. Which is interesting when it has frosting on it, I wouldn't necessarily say it was a bad thing, but given the chance now, I would elect to write the message in honey rather than frosting. Sorry mom, but I have developed more refined tastes. :)

We had lots of family traditions as I was growing up; watching the Sunday night Disney specials (most especially Zorro), having popcorn on Friday nights while watching TGIF, going for walks, camping, etc. But one of the most consistent traditions was anytime my sister and I would leave to go somewhere and my dad was around, as we were walking out the door he would say, "remember, you're a Taylor!" We would always laugh, and say "yeah yeah, whatever dad" This continued for as long as I lived there, so much so that a good friend of mine still says it to me on occasion when we hang up from our phone conversations, it made that much of an impression on her. I don't know if my dad had a deeper reason for giving us that reminder each time we left - reminding us that we were representing the family name, not to forget that we belonged to something bigger than ourselves, that we were a part of a family, a general reminder in case we should find ourselves in an identity crises while shopping at Target, or just a silly thing to say when we left each time. No matter the reason, it became a very comforting thing, and was just expected each time our hands hit the doorknob and my dad was in the general vicinity.

Despite the fact that I am no longer a Taylor (by name anyway), it still pops up every now and then. Mostly when a very special friend of mine yells at me, I get it in exclamation form "TAYLOR!" I can hear it right now in my head, crystal clear. So anytime I am "in trouble" with her, I get my old surname thrown at me, but otherwise I carry around now the much more complicated handle - Rybczynski. I believe it is fairly easy to imagine the response I get when people ask me what my maiden name was after I have to spell my current name for them.

But for me, remembering I am a Taylor is much more than my last name. It means that I had someone take me as his own when he didn't have to. I could have been Shannon Chapman daughter of Dawn, and stepdaughter of Greg Taylor. But I wasn't, I was Shannon Taylor, daughter of Dawn and Greg. I was wanted, I was special, and being a Taylor was my proof. I could have had an entirely different life if I hadn't become a Taylor, but God had another plan, and while there were definitely moments of Greg vs Shannon (the years 13-17 were kind of one big fight - it may come as a big shock to many, but I was kinda mouthy) overall I had a wonderful childhood with parents that loved me and taught me much about life, God, and how to handle the ups and downs that come with life.

So while I can't say I have a normal family (who can? I willfully challenge anyone who thinks they do), I have a wonderful family. And even though my mom and I would probably have made it okay, despite her putting Dr. Pepper in my bottles and thinking that was normal, our little two person family was made complete that January 6th so very long ago *sigh* and then I guess made even more complete May 21, 1983 with the addition of Amy, but that's an entirely other story. :)

Because I know mom went and got you and is making you read this: thanks dad for choosing to become my dad in every sense of the word, you are more my dad then could ever have been determined by DNA. I appreciate you more than I can ever communicate in a conversation or a card, you are a very important and significant influence and part of my life. I can't wait until my kids get to have their own fun (at times trying) but overall wonderful experiences with you. They have alot to learn: social blunder, hiccumupdippy stomach flippy, swail foops, squat rocks, we ain't playin' no school girls here, and all those other sayings that will live on forever. I hope to carry on the tradition of remembering who they are, they will of course have to remember that they are a Rybczynski, which is more of a mouthful, but I hope to carry on the spirit of remembering that they are also a Taylor.

Honest to goodness...goodness

In all the schlock and crap out there in the current and recent movie options, it is so rare to find ones that are just amazing. I am watching one now that is just incredible. All three in the series were amazing, but the third one is my favorite. I am of course speaking of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. It's just damn good movie making.