change of scenary

Thought we needed a change of scene..ary around here. Do you all like? There really is not alot to choose from, what I really need to do is figure out how to get photos on this thing. Now that would be interesting.

Not much to do today..maybe because I don't really want to. Caught up on alot of paper work yesterday that I will take to Bangor this afternoon. I am going to take Hillary' s International Humanitarian Law class tonight that should be really interesting. At least a better understanding of the world wide Red Cross movement in war zones etc. I need to vacume in here..I always do that when I can't think of anything better to do. By that point it usually needs it.

Haven't heard from Caroline since her first email, read the singers blog written by one guy, they are in Venice today. The last stop on the tour. I think they have had a marvelous time. She flies back to DC on Sat. night and home on Sunday. Ty and I will pick her up in Portland. Don is going camping this weekend with Don Buckingham, the black flys will probably carry them off, but that is their prob not mine! Caroline would say her idea of camping is the Holiday Inn. Mine is a cabin with four walls and a roof thankyou.. I have done the tent thing.

Very quiet in the office today phone isnt even ringing. Strange. Well I guess I will go find the vacume. Hope Ginny is having a good Vacation we all know how much she loves "time off"!
Most importantly though...inquiring minds want to know did she find a dress for the wedding??

Back to Reality!

If thats what you call it! Lets see, after Saturday nights fire fun and Sundays office door break in..what else could happen for disaster girl..how about the phone ringing at 4:30 am on Monday!
Fire in Super sib #3's neigborhood..the "geek" video store and above apartments. I asked dispatch is that G-e-e-K and she said you really don't want me to spell it do you?" In any case she wanted to know my ETA..I said I would let her know "someones" ETA, hopefully not mine!
Luckily Hillary was back from the city and took the case..6 Tropical birds included in that one!
Thanks Hill!

Celebrated anniversay #25 at Cleonice last evening although the actual date is today. Paul Sullivan happened to be in the booth next to us and surprised us with champagne later in the evening after he had left.

All in all it was quite a weekend. Lots of family, fun and good food. We even had our own version of MASH's 5 o clock charlie..this guy would buzz the house every night in a private plane and then fly off over the reach. No idea who that was. Lots of gardening got done! Steven J. likes that word..."got done" says its a Maine expression.
All I know is that Kimmie trimmed the heck out of the rose bushes, the guys took down trees at the store, did the entire lawn thanks, to the new tractor and I filled window boxes planters and
cleaned out perennial beds. Things look pretty good except for that ugly dead bush next to the fence but thats another days work.

Hopefully this week..reality..will not be nearly as exciting as the weekend. I need some rest.
And for some reason I have no voice...whats up with that. And contrary to popular belief I did not yell all weekend it was gone on Saturday morning!! Ha!

Disaster training

Well I am sitting in my office on a Sunday waiting for the Ellsworth PD to arrive after getting here to activate a CAC because my stupid computer would not work..and found the door on one side pushed in but the dead bolt still out on the other. NICE!!! not!

Our internal office was still locked but none the less a little disconcerting. So "disaster Czarina" as they have been calling me all weekend had n0 calls all day yesterday until 6pm when fires started popping up across Maine. Two at 5 minutes apart and several counties apart. I couldnt believe it. One was just down the road from Pat, around the corner to be exact..but the boy had too many guiness' or so he says to respond, but said "Huh..thats why my street is blocked off." Duh! The other was in Palmyra and was going to be a complicated case due to 24h O2 for one of the victims. By the time I got to them on the phone they had been taken care of. I said by who?
They said the Red Cross! I said I am the Red Cross! Well come to find out they are out of our jurisdiction. We had no volunteers not one that was answering phones in either area. So I did the front work and Lynn, who had already had a bad day with a teacher not showing up for a booked class (CPR FA) said she would see them in the morning. Then when she called to day to have the card activated the "stupid" computer did not open the file. GRRRRRRRRRR. so an
unplanned trip to Ellsworth where I find the door broken in.

So the cops looked around everything is now secure and I will go home and see the new tractor Don purchased to mow the lawn...finnally! I don't know why its taken this long to get a riding mower but Ty will definetely be happy with this one!

Disaster Czarina signing off until next time

ARC girl in Charge...

Scary thought. Its Memorial Day weekend and everyone is leaving me ..in charge...ok thats nine counties where something could go wrong. Hmmm, Memorial Day weekend, are we comfortable with this? I am taking everyone phone number I can think of home with me. NOthing ever happens around here ....right?? Oh well I signed up for this! Brace yourselves people.

So its 80 something degrees today..amazing. Ty didn't have school so he came to work with me played on High speed internet for awhile (a treat for us!) and went to the Y-skate park. I will get him for lunch but then he will have to do errands after work with me. Its plant shopping time and I intend to get some of that done this weekend.
Told Don before he goes "golfing" at Kebo on Saturday...that the big blue planters need to be on the deck etc. He has been mowing the upper lawn but the kid who does down by the water hasn't shown up yet..it will soon be a field if he doesn't and I will not be a happy camper! It can not be done with a hand mower it has to be a rider so we couldn't do it if we wanted to. We'll need a bushhog soon.

Got an email from Diva Daughter this morning. She is in Croatia having a wonderful time.
Did have lunch in Paris..ie: the debit card use!! Doing a concert tonight and then off to Slovenia tommorow. At somepoint they end up on the ocean which should be spectacular before they head to Venice.

Well 25 years ago I got married this weekend. That is almost too much to fathom. I can't imagine my life otherwise though and it has definetly been a good one. Filled to the brim.
I would not trade any of it. Happy holiday weekend everyone. Hope its a quiet one. ARC girl.

Travelers stress level report...

Threat level for Moms? off the charts!!.... Caroline called last night from Dulles Airport had just gone through security and was at the Air France terminal..said that alot of her friends had informed their banks they would be out of the country. She asked us to call the bank in the morning..no problem. We wished her well, she sounded great, happy and already having a good time. Had to arrive at airport early because she took a shuttle in from Sharons but a couple of friends planes had just landed so she had people to go eat and hang out with. The singers were flying out in 4 groups. Carolines group was flying out the latest. 10:30 pm to Paris. They were going to have a layover there so a shuttle was taking them into the city for a few hours. All sounds good right. So I went to bed knowing my daughter was either in the air or later walking the streets of one of her favorite cities.

8:25 AM phone rings..Bar Harbor Bank and Trust, its Andrea saying that fraud protection has turned off Carolines debit card!!! She apparently used it in Paris when she landed, that was probably around 3or 4am Our time, probably got some cash and then set off the alarms. I mean I had barely accomplished anything and they had already turned off her bank card!! Andrea at the bank said I had to call some national fraud number and hope that they would accept my story as I am not the card holder but I do have my name on her account. After a couple of tries, I didn't have the right numbers for the first operator. I got someone who just wanted to know where she would be and how long she would be gone and they would turn her card back to active. I feel that I can react to stress ok but
my stress level went from zero to 85 in .02 seconds this morning. Who needs coffee when you can get that kind of jolt from your bank!!

Moral of the story...DO NOT LEAVE THE COUNTRY without telling your bank! This is of course all very new. I used my debit card the last two times I went to Europe, as this is now the preferred way to get cash..your bank gives you what you want in the local currency or the Euro,
and converts and gives you the best rate for the dollar. I never had to tell my bank I was going!

Caroline is a pretty seasoned traveler..a gift we gave our children that we thought was pretty important, and I know if she had run into trouble she would have found a way to contact us to get it all straightened out...but as a Mom the thought of her getting a message from her ATM
that she was denied access to cash while in a foreign country on her own freaked me out!

So hopefully that is the only glitch in the travels of my diva daughter and I can now calm down to my not nearly as exciting life. Happy Trails.

Yesterday, although a beautiful day for driving with Caroline to Portland to the airport for the first leg of her trip to Europe, was full of "pot holes"! I thank god for the sunshine because a rainy day would have made it awful. She had decided to have a serious conversation with her boyfriend both the day and night before she left town and again that morning. He was naturally devastated and she was fragile and teary. NOt a good way to start a European tour. We stopped at our favorite food place, the Market Basket in Rockport for coffee and breakfast sandwiches and she fell asleep, by the time she woke she was a little better. During the trip though, two of her girl friends called or text messaged her so that was good. I am glad she will be gone for awhile, it all would have been too much on the home front. The time and space will do both of them some good.

Returning from her big Adventure Aisha walked thru the door yesterday morning before we left. I had been a little worried as we had not heard from her since she landed in Boston on
Sunday, and was ready to call out the dogs. Her cell phone had died and she borrowed a car to get from Bowdoin to Sedgwick. She looked wonderful, very dark not too thin. She said the world seemed much smaller now! She said she could go anywhere, after travelling thru Ghana by herself, having malaria, and living in not always the best conditions...sounds like we should recruit her for ARC!

After Care and I had lunch we went to the airport and I saw her off. She actually doesnt leave until 10pm tonight on Air France. The University singers have a google blog so now I have another one to read! Then I stopped at the Christmas tree shop to see what summer bargains they had. Picked up napkins, a basket a flower pot, some ribbon for packages nothing spectacular. Then I stopped at LL Beans. I have been looking for a light weight navy cardigan..do you think I can find one..they had one I wanted to look at. I tried on two sizes the medium seemed to fit well but the price was bothering me..49.00. But I had been looking forever..so I took the medium up to the counter and was digging in my purse for my LL Bean card when the clerk said that will be 14.oo!! I looked up and at the tag, it had been mismarked.!
I didn't say a word. No need to charge that baby...just handed her my debit card and was on my way. There were a few pangs of guilt but they were short lived. I have spent enough money there over the years to make up for it!

So back to work today...health and welfare call this morning AFES center helped with that one.
Lots of loose ends to take care of. Maybe I will go have lunch on that "fictional umbrella table" of mine outside the office. Gretchen

Mental Health

Well I didn't have enough of that to go around last week and If I had posted..if I had time to post ..it would have been in words unfit for printing! So my mental health is better and I can honestly say I won't shoot anyone for walking thru the door of the American Red Cross! NOt that I would have last week.

It was just difficult..Wednesday thru Friday seemed like some one elses life! Caroline of course threw the household into a tizzy as she does..not her fault but we get into a routine and then back she comes, tons of stuff, boyfriend and high energy and its like whoa! Then I come to work and its the same thing. I had one piece of work on my computer for two days that should of taken me 20 minutes tops to fill out and It took two days!! I had to deal with life guard issues
military classes, billing, and some crazy lady who wanted to know where the disaster cots were in Hancock county! With the exception of where the disaster cots are..I did not have the answers for any of the above. That was Thursday!! Friday I came in told the volunteer manning the phone in Bangor that I was going to do office errands around Ellsworth and she didnt b0ther to tell anyone, I got a panicked call about my whereabouts around 11:00, at least they were worried. And of course in the midst of it all I was getting ready for a surprise 50th party for Don on Friday night.

I left work at 3pm, picked up ice and went home and everything did go smoothly. He was surprised and pleased with the party. My youngest neice was there..she found the dessert table which had mini whoopie pies on it, for some reason she decapitated them and left the tops at various places around the house..that was interesting! Everyone did have a grand time..Caroline had heads turning as usual, for all those who had not seen her in a year. Tyler had heads looking straight up for others who had not seen the 5foot 11 version of him. The new cat, Reilly had the best time of all, usually cats disappear at large gatherings he seemed to be in the middle of it all the time! Caroline had made a huge collage of pictures on a door in the kitchen, so that was fun to look at...all in all a great success!

Sunday Care and I went to Bangor to TJ's she needed a few things for her trip to Europe. It was fun. We had lunch at chili's and talked about everything. It was a good day..shopping with her is always fun. She should have such a good time on that trip.

My other "little one" flew back to Boston yesterday from Ghana although she has not called! Her phone was turned off so we hope to see her on the way to the airport on Tuesday.

Well it is Monday and the office is quiet..amazing! I might get something done today.
Have a good one everyone..I plan to.

Travels

Barely got out of here Friday...addendum to Rolling Stone post! Tyler won the contest! Got home and found the first place certificate on the counter! Tried to get to work at 9:30 on Friday but then had to activate a card, my computer wouldn't do it so ended up late and then coming in to do it. Picked up Ty at school and we all got on the road about 1:30. Couple of stops to exchange some too short new jeans I had bought him and we made it to Hartford at 8:30.
The Residence Inn Marriot there has a brewpub attached where we like to eat. The waiter that night was a bit odd though..looked like he spilled bleach in patches on his hair and one eyebrow.
Very attractive..not! Especially since he thought he was!

Left by 7:30 the Saturday Morning for DC. Arrived about 3:30 and checked into the GWU Inn and then went over to the dorm...as I thought Care had very little packed. Though she thought she did. We decided we would do it all on Sunday and she would spend the night with us.
Saturday night she took us up to Dupont Circle for Italian and then we walked around and then hit a bookstore cafe for dessert. Just as we sat down there was a torrential thunderstorm.
We were in a glass room so it was pretty wild.

Sunday, Mothers day, we got up and packed her room. It went pretty well and we had it all done in about 2 hours then we all cleaned up, bought a picnic lunch took it down to the National Mall and ate in front of the Lincoln monument. It was great. Sunny, warm and with my kids who could have asked for more. We then walked through the Korean war memorial which we have missed on other trips and Don decided he wanted to walk to the Jefferson Memorial which is down on the Potomac. Well we took the long way and I mean the long way...it was a great walk, by the time all was said and done, but it was miles by the time we got back to the hotel.
Took Carolines friend Katherine out to dinner with us and laughed at their exploits over the year. Then back to bed!! My legs were hurting.

Monday Caroline and I hit the "exquisite Fabrics" store on K Street, which has to be the best fabric store this side of NY. We each bought some material for summer skirts and dress. Then she went off to say goodby and take her last final. Don Ty and I walked down to National Red Cross HQ where they told us they had closed the visitors center! WELL! But did I know anyone, and they could get me a pass...unfortunately some one in the Nurses office sent me an email after I left on Friday, saying look her up on Monday..darn it. They do have tours but you have to reserve well ahead. So much for that. So we decided to see what George was up to. Apparently he just had a press conference in the Rose garden. It was all set up and we saw David Gregory from NBC or Tony Snow couldnt tell which one. Then back to campus to get Care. Drove as far as New Jersey and stayed in a Marriot Court yard.

Don't know what they were thinking when they said the room had two double beds. It was more like two over sized twins. No one slept. I was on the edge all night and by Tuesday morning my hip was killing me. Well after a few hours in the car and all that walking and it all caught up with me, I had one leg that swelled up like a balloon. We had to keep stopping so I could walk and get it uncramped...
all I needed was a DVT or something. It was starting to get quite painful from the swelling and so the final ride home was not too much fun.

Good to have Caroline home though...tons of stuff came through the door Tuesday night then we watched a video of a musical she did that I couldn't go down to see. She was great. Her voice was fabulous and her acting and dance a step above high school. I won't miss another one!
She is off again next week to Europe..very exciting. And we have a 50th birthday at the end of the week. No rest for the weary around here.

"Papa was a Rolling Stone..."

Not really...but my son was!!! Last night was "Rock back the Clock" night at the Sedgwick Elementary. A project where the 7th and 8th graders had to pick a performer, a year, a song and put together a performance of that song complete with costume (karoke style to the original piece) along with a power point presentation of events that happened during the year that the song came out. Tyler chose 1965, Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones song "Satisfaction". He was accompanied by his friend Bjorn who played the part of Keith Richards on guitar, complete with
white T-shirt and Red bandana head band. Ty had on a purple paisley shirt a pair of black high top sneakers, button fly hip hugger jeans with a white and silver belt. His hair had grown out to Micks length in the 60's and did he ever have his moves! It was so well choreographed I was crying and laughing at the same time!

Don taped it with some great close up shots of Tyler doing some typical Mick Jagger head movements and flipping his hair back and the "Mick Strut". It was uncanny! His sister is no longer the only O'Grady child with stage presence!! If the high school drama teacher catches wind of this performance its all over for him! Can't wait for Caroline to see it she is going to be so proud of her Little bro.
And did I forget to mention handsome! The girls were swooning last night.

This is not usually my son. Mr. quiet, stoic polite Tyler. Someone definitely is coming out of his shell.
Rock on!! Gretchen

Tying up the loose ends..

So this is a fairly normal week so far! I have gotten thru some stacks of paper in my office and all the emails and I am closing in on all the loose ends. If I could just loose this darn headache. I have pretty well determined its probably allergy related. Then I get the migraine and it becomes a vicious circle..so I better get an appointment in my free time. I will be going on my third week of this continuous head pain if I don't.

Talked to the Exec. Director to change two of my days back to 1/2 days. The 10-3 days although technically a part time job were not part time days. I was getting nothing done on either end. So if I am not to be full time I need some half days. Plus I have another class coming up this summer. Some one in their infinite wisdom only teaches the Grant writing class for Non profit mgmt. in the summer. And of course they don't teach it during the early summer session May June..they teach it during the best part of summer July/August. I have put it off for two summers and I have to get it done. Then just one more class to complete the program as is unless I want the advanced degree. Its so costly right now that I doubt it. If anything I may get the other certificate in health management and leave it at that.

In other exciting news I met with the front people for the "Presidents Own" Marine Corp band, who have chosen EHS as a venue this fall for an evening concert. Talk about "by the book".
Everything is meticulous. We have hosted the Navy band before but this is the premier group.
Tickets are limited but free..so if anyone reading this wants to come be on the lookout. THe concert is October 19 in Ellsworth.

My Luck that will be the opening for Caroline's play in DC. She was cast in the Fall mainstage production. She is thrilled to say the least. It is a series of one acts pulled together to make an evening of theater. She is very thrilled to be a part of the "straight play" instead of being chosen for the musical which is where she is usually cast. Regardless of anything we will be attending her first Mainstage! That term means "theatre dept. production" using the main stage of the University and directed by the full dept.

Speaking of the dear daughter we leave to travel to DC this weekend to pack her up. She of course has done nothing in that regard from what I can gather. She has a final on Monday at 3. so we will head out after that and get some miles in and finish the trip home on Tuesday. All mothers should be tromping up and down dorm halls and stairs on mother's day lugging their kids stuff to cars..don't you think? Good exercise, good for your family together ness..beats a relaxing day sipping mimosas and reading a good book...hmmm.

Where have I been...?

Where haven't I been is the better question!! Got back from Boston/Quincy spent one night in my own bed then off to the "county" yep! Spent a week up there between Tuesday and Wednesday! First off its" the drive from you know where" on the way up..not so bad on the way back...maybe because its all down hill or something! Ginny packed the car with snacks in case we broke down and no one found us so we could survive for days like some of those people you hear about on Dateline who live off a chocolate bar! We didn't even take the food into our rooms, just in case we got stuck somewhere!!

Speaking of rooms..we stayed at the swanky Northern lights motel a combination dog supply store, and I think obedience school..some sort of dog class or meeting was going on at night..and motel. The motel office had a counter with six inches of space for motel business and the rest was gourmet dog treats and supplies! The manager asked us if we wanted "angels or flowers"
Ginny chose angels..that was the room decor! Don't ask! It was clean, no outlets none in the bath room, and a couple of spiders living in my drain...other than that. It was an adventure.
I could think of worse places.

Toured 4 schools to use as primary shelters including Houlton, Presque Isle Caribou and Fort Fairfield. PI and Houlton were enourmous I had to count the toilets...I am still counting!
The other two towns we looked at the elementary schools. One was perfect. The other was chosen for location by the local fire dept which had put together its own shelter team and under no circumstances wanted the Red Cross to play with them. Until of course they found out we would foot the bill...money does talk! Afore said "gentleman" also told us "no one is going to come to your two day institute next month! Because No ONE goes to things on the weekend around here. Period! end of discussion. Then the newspaper photographer took this "all happy" picture of us "getting along" for the community paper! Gotta love it.

Food was another fun thing, we wanted to go to this italian restaurant that was reccommended and was supposed to be in a lovely dining room. This was after striking out on several other meals...the restaurant was closed for renovations so they had moved it to a banquet room. They sat us next to a sliding wall, where a weight watchers meeting was going on, on the other side! The food was good it was just a weird setting.
Another time we went to this restaurant that had a buffet lunch and they had all these different types of rice on the buffet...to go with what I don't know! We did eat breakfast at Governors though that worked!

Left the county on Wed. one day later (felt like a week). Thought I had been in an episode of Northern Exposure at times. Went home to bed, Bangor to a Pandemic conference the next day,
Rockland on Saturday, and finally my wonderful yellow couch on Sunday!! We leave for DC starting on Friday. I hope to get some office time this week and get some work done.

Mumsy's birthday was yesterday, took her out to dinner, at her fav spot in Blue Hill the one she can't pronounce Marlintini's. She had a good time. Take care all.