It's a different world around here....

but I like it. I'm actually starting to have fun down here in El Centro/Calexico. One of my good friends works down here and I've gotten to spend a lot of time with her. Tonight we're supposed to go to some party hosted by the US Attorney's office for the agents. Funny, our US Attys. never throw us parties in Riverside! Oh well, it should be kinda fun.

Last night I went to the movies with my friend and saw "Observe and Report". It wasn't all that great. I'm a little disappointed since I love Seth Rogan normally. I can't believe I have been able to go to 2 movies in the past 2 weeks. Before those, I had gone in June 2007. No joke. Since Samantha I don't really get the chance to go to the movies.

All in all this detail out here is working out well. I really like my coworkers here and it's fun doing something different. I have never worked drug loads as an agent but now I am and that's just 1 more thing I have learned. It's nice to be away from my crappy coworkers in the reg. office and sorta be on my own out here. No one gives me a hard time or is mean to me, there doesn't seem to be much male chauvanism here.

Anyway, not much else happening. Will update after we attend this soiree tonight and I'll see if I can get a couple pics of my friend and I. I wont be dressed up or anything but I love pictures all the same....

PS-- With all the good Mexican food down here my diet has gone by the wayside! Not gaining but not losing either. Yikes! :)

A few pics from today

Sorry, haven't had a whole lot of time to update on things. The weekends are so short when I have to drive out Fri. night and then back to the border on Sun. night.

Today we did the Race for Humanity. My DH and I walked the 3.2 miles and he pulled Sam in her luxury wagon. The kiddo ran the whole way, I couldn't beleive it, sure am proud of him.

We then went to San Diego for my friend's graduation (college) celebration. After that me, DH & the kids went to Seaport Village on the water and had an early dinner down there and then drove home. It was a long but good day...

Me, Rachel (the graduate!) and my friend Jamelin.



Samantha and Koshi at Seaport Village. San Diego is SO beautiful huh?



Daddy & Samantha playing w/ the parrots at Seaport Village.



Koshi and the birds...



Me n DH at Seaport Village (self shot pic!)

My home away from home.

KITCHEN


LIVING ROOM


LIVING ROOM


BEDROOM


BEDROOM



Oh well, if I gotta be out here at least it's a nice room and I do get to go home on the weekends!

I have a great room at the government price. I had to sweet talk the sales director to get it, I'm glad he was so cooperative to give a simple agent like me a badass room for way below what it's worth. He told me not to tell any of my fellow agents about it though and I promised I wouldn't. :)

Ok, so here's my story

Last Thurs. I was coming home from the dentist and I get a text msg. on my work cell phone. It was my boss telling me that I was "selected" (ha, what a funny word to use. Screwed over is more like it) to replace another agent that was on this detail on the southern border cause she got sick. Not only that but I had to report on Monday to the Calexico POE (port of entry). Now I was just in the desert a week ago for 2 weeks. This is ridiculous. I say that because I have to be at this detail for the next 2 months. Yes, you read that right. 2 fuckin' months. Sorry for the cursing but I am upset.

I can go home on the weekends for the most part but there may be times where we're working out here. My DH had to take this week off & then I am scrambling in order to get someone to take care of Samantha and my DSS. My aunt will come out for 2 weeks after DH goes back to work and then my mom'll come in for like 3 weeks and then the last 2 weeks I am screwed at the moment. No plan for those yet but am working on it.

There are a couple good things to this detail. I get away from my pain in the ass coworkers (a few of them are cool but not all) and my lame ass boss. My room is awesome. It's a suite w/ an entire kitchen in it which I think is way cool. Never had a room like this before. It was important to me since I watch what I eat and am trying to lose like at least 20 more lbs. I cooked spaghetti in my hotel room tonight. How crazy is that? It also has the smallest dishwasher I have ever seen, very cute. Never knew they made 1/2 size appliances! I'd post some pics but I need an adapter for my camera memory stick and it's at home. I can't believe I gotta be out here for 2 friggin' months!!!!!

I did get my parking ticket taken care of at the DMV yesterday. Was a lot cheaper to fix the problem than I thought. That was a relief. Now I don't have that hanging over my head any longer.

I actually got my lazy butt on the treadmill tonight. I rocked that thing for 45 min too. They were watching American Idol in the gym which I have never ever watched before. It was interesting but I am not a fan. Am looking forward to the premire of Deadliest Catch tonight though!!!! 1 more hour!

SuperBad was just on here on the hotel TV. We get Starz for free. Pretty funny stuff.
Well, guess that's about it for me. Will update as something interesting happens. Thanks for reading this far!

Been MIA for a few days, but there's a reason

I am on another detail. This time in lovely El Centro, CA (said w/ sarcasm there). I will update later today/tonight. This was a last min. thing and really sucks for me. I have had to grasp at straws in order to get childcare, etc. Plus, I miss Samantha. Also, it's my stepson's b-day today. I missed his b-day last year due to a detail for work too. Crazy coincidence.

Will elaborate in another post later....

I'd love to participate

in the Karma thing going on around here but I cannot. It's simply because I can't make anything unless it's food related I think! LOL. The other thing is that I am way busy w/ house projects, Samantha, my step son, did I mention my house? :)

Not too much happening at the moment. Work is work. It's kind of nice being back in my office, regular hours and the weekends off again. The past weekend was pretty uneventful for the most part. On Sat. though I got a scare....

Samantha went into our bedroom around 8:30AM on Sat. and DH got her out after hearing her in our bathroom, no big deal, he closes our door (has a child lock on the handle). Later in the morning we decide to start getting ready for the day and errands we had to do. Showering, brushing teeth, getting dressed, etc.

After brushing my teeth, I usually take my pill (an anti depressant called lexapro) for the day. The bottle was just as I left it, top on, to the left of my side of the counter in the bathroom. Well this time it's EMPTY. WTF I ask myself. I KNEW there were pills in it yesterday! At least 20+ in there! Then I started putting investigative skills together, or mom skills. I ask Sam if she took any of mommy's pills or what she did w/ them. It's no use asking a 2 1/2 yr. old something like that. We rush around everywhere looking for tiny pills, scouring the bathroom floor. Surely, she would've dropped at least 1 on the floor? Maybe she flushed them in the toilet? My DH takes the plumbing under my sink out. No pills.

We start to panic. I call the poison control center. It's about 10AM now. Sam is going about her usual business and acting normal. The PCC tells me she will vomit or act lethargic or something if she took any. He says if there's any doubt whether she took any or not, we need to go to the ER.

So, while I'm on the phone w/ the guy DH finds the pills! Where were they? UNDER OUR BED. Yep, all dumped out. Sam was trying to give them to my cat! Ugh! How did she get the bottle open? She even put the bottle back where it belonged w/ the top on it. Amazing! So, at this point we still don't know if she took one though. I couldn't remember how many were in the bottle to begin with since I put some from a previous bottle into that one too. Anyway, Sam either tells us "yes" or "no" when we ask if she ate any. Well, to err on the side of caution, we of course take her to the nearest ER.

The ER triage nurse calls the PCC. They instruct the staff to observe her for 4 hours! YIKES! We go into the back where the gurneys are and the rooms. We sit out in the open on a white gurney. The Dr. comes to see us. HE calls the PCC yet again. They ask him to ask us "why did it take you [my DH and I] so long to come in here?" We both responded "We didn't know anything had happpend for at least an hour and a half!". That is the first time I have ever felt like MAYBE someone would think I would neglect/abuse my little princess. I kinda felt really weird. And mad, and sad and disgusted possibly?

So, I ask the Dr. "Do they want to observe her for 4 hrs. from now or from the time we suspect she took the meds?" He calls them back. Jesus, am I a friggin' doctor or the only one around w/ common sense? He comes back & says that we'll only be in the ER for an hour and a half since a bunch of time had already elapsed. Thanks Einstein.

So, we had to entertain a 2 year old out in the open while nurses/doctors were going about their business. At least I keep paper and crayons and junk in her diaper bag. It went pretty much ok. There was a little girl that came in about 6 mos. younger than Sam who had a broken foot! Poor baby! She was really good. Not sure if it had been the other way around Sam would be that calm.

All in all, Sam turned out ok. I don't think she took any pills but you just never know. I am really good about keeping our bedroom door closed, my DH not so much. Maybe now he'll get better about it. I always make sure those caps are on tight too, just in case. My daughter is obsessed w/ the bathroom--probably because there's water in there & she LOVES water.

That was my excitement for awhile--I hope. Thank god we have dual insurance too, I am hoping that little trip to the ER is on the insurance and not on us!

April Fools day was not good to me....

Oh my gosh, if its not one thing its another, you know? First I get yelled at by my coworker we'll refer to as "Sh*tbird", ha ha.

Then I get home yesterday and my mom tells me she got a parking ticket in my Tahoe in Riverside when she went to brunch w/ friends. Now its really my fault I guess, but now I gotta fork out over $100 for the ticket. The reason being that I do not have a front license plate (my DH crashed my car 12/2007 on the way to Idaho and the plate is destroyed) & my registration is not expired but when I got the new sticker to put on the back plate I didn't stick it on right away so I am thinking that one of the car wash workers ripped it off. It was on my center console. Stupid me. Every time I make an appt. w/ the DMV to get the sticker replaced, work comes up to ruin the appt. so I haven't gotten it taken care of. Arrrgh!

Then I get my registration notice for our new truck and it's over $500! YIKES! There's some sort of weight fee of $200 on top of the regular reg. Maybe it's because its a dually truck? Never owned one before so this is new to me.

Disney on Ice was ok, but not spectacular. Sam wanted to go home the whole time. Well, near the end it wasn't so bad but she is SO stubborn and active! She didn't want to sit in her seat and was standing/sitting in the aisleway & I thought she was gonna fall & crack her head open. Hard to watch something & relax when your kid's acting up. At least we beat the mad rush of traffic out. I had to drive back out to Palm Springs from home this morning VERY early. I have had about 3 hrs. of sleep and that's being generous. We followed a guy all the way from Coachella to Fontana today and then got the info. we needed but it was a loooong morning. I want to go to bed so bad but can't. Someone's gotta mind Sam and my mom's not feeling well. Every time she comes out she gets sick. This time it's much later than usual. She usually gets sick in the beginning. Poor ma.

Well, I'd better go help her out, I can hear my kid running rampant around the house!

I got yelled at today

You know, I am really trying to stand up for myself lately but I hate confrontation within my small group of coworkers. Is it more worth it to tell someone off who's bullying me or just take it and do what I am told? I was really embarassed to be treated like a child in front of others this morning.

I have a coworker who thinks he is a supervisor but he is a GS13 just like me. Now, he has more years of experience yes, but he's NOT my boss. Why does he think he can tell me what to do? Why do I give in? Man, its hard working in a male dominated field sometimes. Do I look weak now to my other coworkers who saw me back down? It's a lose-lose situation for me no matter what I think. Sigh.

Well, on a lighter note, I have tonight off from the festivities my group is doing in the desert w/ Indio PD. I am taking the kids to see Disney on Ice in Ontario. Got tix in Feb. and the leave was approved so here I am at home. I'll try not to dwell on my stupid napoleon-complex, narcisstic, asshole of a coworker and not let it ruin my day.