Busy Day

So yesterday I had signed up for 10 hours of voluntary overtime at work, not bad since that is like a regular shift but it was on Swings so I got to go home by 1:30am. Well Graveyards ended up short two people and since I'm back on graveyards the Sergeant looks to me and says "hey do you want to work 5 more hours?" Looking at the big picture (my Spain trip is coming up quickly!) I said "yes" but I wasn't prepared for 15 hours and only brought enough food for a 10 hour shift. Thank goodness for co-workers and cell phones, I was able to catch one of my co-worker who was at Panda Express getting her dinner and she ended up bringing me some food too. The nice thing was that they were down dispatchers and I was able to be the breaker to get my "feet" wet again. But this is my last week with my trainee on phones and then I'm back in the radio room. Yay! I missed being on the radio talking to units instead of citizens who yell, cuss and get mad at you even though they called you for help in the first place. Go figure!

But today my mom's Day Care had a field trip to Chuck E. Cheese planned and I couldn't let the kids down. So I came home took a two hour nap, woke up and drove the kids to the train station. They were going to take a quick train trip downtown, where I picked them up and then we drove to Chuck E Cheese. Let's just say that for pre-schoolers that is one of the best places to go to. They have games for you at your eye level, nothing too hard and when you collect enough tickets you can get a prize. The kids had fun and on the drive home it was quieter, one of the kids fell asleep but the rest followed soon after when we got back to the house. Needless to say I joined in on nap time today. =) I still had to hit the gym though so tonight I will be sleeping like a baby! My one free night from work before starting my work week tomorrow.

Long weekend

Columbus Day weekend and I spent most of it at work. On Saturday we had a BBQ and they all requested I make lumpias. Well the thing with lumpias is that it is good fresh, because then it is crispy. So I had to bring my deep fryer to work along with some meat, cooking utensils and the necessary condiments. My Saturday morning started with a fright! I was putting some things in my car when this strange 4-door sedan pulled up at the end of the driveway with four people in it. They paused stared at me and the proceeded to pull into the parking lot next to our house, turn off it's headlights and remain idle with the engine running! Well that scared me so I walked quickly back into the house and dialed up one of my friend, hoping he was on duty (which thankfully he was!), and asked him to drive by my house in his patrol vehicle. As soon as I hung up with him though, the car left the parking lot and drove away, still frightened I walked back out to my car making sure my friend was on the phone with me until I got into my vehicle. I quickly drove off since I had to get to work on time and had to make two trips from the parking lot to our break room with all the stuff I was briging for the BBQ. Now work starts at 0600 hours for me that day, but around 0900 hours I started getting messages on my computer telling me to go cook the lumpias. =) I made them wait an hour then got my trainee to assist me in making the lumpias and setting up the rest of the potluck things. My Sgt was manning the grill out back and it was funny to watch him put 2 radios in his apron instead of the usual beverage. But since he was still on duty he had to listen to the radio traffic incase something came up, still he looked good grilling. =) There was plenty of food, mostly meat from the grill, lost of veggies and I was stuffed like a turkey on Thanksgiving day. So when they needed someone from dayshift to stay over an extra 5 hours, I volunteered and didn't mind it one bit as there was plenty of food left! Not a bad way to spend your weekend. Sunday I was back on graveyards and couldn't keep the smile off my face. It was like coming "home" and to top it off the Sharks won both their back to back games against the LA Kings. A very nice weekend indeed!!


My trainee learning how to cook lumpias.

Bringing my deep fryer to work.

Worrying in circles

With all that is going on in this world for a worrywart like me that is enough to drive one crazy! I mean you have the whole election next president of the USA pending, the economy is down and everyone is in a tizzy about that then to top it all off I get a text message from a good friend at work who is moving out of state. Mind you she's not giving us much of a heads up warning here because she is leaving next Tuesday! So how can I not help it but to worry in circles? All these changes pending that may affect my life and those around me. Siiiggghh. Which is why I'm so grateful to have a God that controls the universe. I mean after all when my world seems to spin out of whack having a loving Heavenly Father who is in sole control of the universe is very reassuring.

Philippians 4:6 comes to mind and is a great comfort, I found the parallel translations of that verse to be all comforting and very applicable in helping me stop worrying in circles.
International Standard Version (©2008)
Never worry about anything. Instead, in every situation let your petitions be made known to God through prayers and requests, with thanksgiving.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Never worry about anything. But in every situation let God know what you need in prayers and requests while giving thanks.

King James Bible
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

American King James Version
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

American Standard Version
In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Bible in Basic English
Have no cares; but in everything with prayer and praise put your requests before God.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Be nothing solicitous; but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God.

Darby Bible Translation
Be careful about nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

English Revised Version
In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Webster's Bible Translation
Be anxious for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Weymouth New Testament
Do not be over-anxious about anything, but by prayer and earnest pleading, together with thanksgiving, let your request be unreservedly made known in the presence of God.

World English Bible
In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Young's Literal Translation
for nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer, and by supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God;

So now when my mind starts thinking about life and all that is going on in the world this present age, I just keep saying this verse over and over again to remind me that no matter what happens I just have to bring it all to God. After all a God who created us and loves us more than anything is in complete control of the World and not me. =)

Personalizing Luggage

When traveling you need to have a way to find your luggage and since most luggage look alike they recommend you do something that would cause your luggage to stand out. The most common suggestion is to add a brightly colored ribbon or yarn to your luggage besides some tags with your mailing information. For me that is still hard because when that baggage carousel goes around sometimes the handle where your yarn or ribbon is located gets hidden due to another suitcase on top of it. I find that by really personalizing my luggage I can see it. So since my black luggage of 5 years has done its duty and plus the edges were tearing apart, I had to get new luggage. Mind you your options for luggage are now so vast and wide with a price tag scale to follow from luggage with polk-a-dots to brand name luggage that you can engrave your initials to. But my budget won't allow for those high expensive suitcases so I needed to find my own way to personalize my luggage. That is where stencils, some fabric paint and paint brushes came in. Now I don't just put a picture on the front of the luggage, I also add it on the sides and tops so that when my suitcases goes around I can identify it quickly.

Cliffhangers

This weekend I got hooked on the ABC Family mini-series "Samurai Girl". I was channel surfing Saturday night and caught the middle part of the story, but that was okay since they did a few flashbacks. Now knowing that there was a third part Sunday I was expecting the cliffhanger Saturday night. Boy was it a good one too and it took the word 'cliffhanger' literally! So here I was tonight expecting all the loose ends to be tied up. The show was great full of exciting martial arts action and the plot was pretty decent. But the thing I was so not happy with is that the heroine still didn't end up with the hero. The hero being this total "bad boy" but with a good heart guy who thinks he doesn't deserve the heroine but you know that the heroin love him with all her heart anyways. I just wanted them to end up together! But what do they do instead? They give you a cliffhanger at what you thought was the end but may not be.

So being the type "A" person that I am, I did some research online. I found out that this movie was based off a book series which has 6 published so far. This movie is based off the 1st book and I'm curious to know if they will make more or if this is how they plan to end it, with all the loose ends still not all tied up. I want Heaven and Jake to hook up, Otto realize that his other half is Cheryl and yes I understand this is all fiction. But isn't that the beauty of TV to take you out of the harsh "real world" for a little bit and bring you to a whole new environment? Still I want my happy ending, there is enough unhappy ones in the world we live in why can't they give us that nice fluffy feeling at the end? Why?

Greek Lunch

There is this great Greek restaurant in Sacramento that I enjoy going to, during "girls day" we usually end up here for lunch and the food is fabulous. The place is called Opa!Opa! and they have website you can check out http://www.eatatopa.com/ Plus next door they have a dessert store called "Sweeties" and it has a counter full of yummy sweet goodness. Today we had our girls day out and two of the girls brought their kids. One of them J is such a cutie and was totally hamming it up for the camera.

A great overtime

Tonight I had a great time working overtime at work. Normally I just go in, do my job and leave thinking of the extra cash I just earned for an up coming trip or something. Tonight however turned out to be a great night! First off I got to work the Officer Request station which I haven't had a chance to sit in since I started training this summer after my promotion. Then one of the guys in radio was not feeling well and so I offered to switch with him. He took me up on the offer and I got to be in radio dispatching for his end of the shift. When graveyards came in the gal who was supposed to take my radio channel decided to stay out on phones and let me keep it. Man was I happy! Moving to day-shift was a change in how thing worked and the two days I worked on Days were rather boring with not much radio traffic. But my overtime was on swingshift and those guys keep you going at a steady pace, if it starts to lag they run vehicles and do vehicle stops. However the best part of my night was yet to come. Near the end of my shift one of the units got into a pursuit for a few minutes and it was my first pursuit since I finalized. I was a tad nervous and had a quick brain freeze in the midst of it, fortunately my colleague who was monitoring the channel next to me helped out. So it was a pretty good pursuit and mhy sergeant said I did a good job. (She had her radio up in the other room so the call takers could hear it all, including my last trainer and he said I did a good job on it too). But I was just excited that I totally didn't mess up on my first pursuit and walked out at the end of shift with a BIG smile on my face. =) What a great night!