Business (cards)

There are some great things about having business cards.  They help people see that my name is not, in fact, "Teeny."  (You have no idea . . .)  They make me feel grown-up and professional.  It is fun to hand things out.  Business cards allow people to feel like they can ask me questions later, and don't have to figure out all their questions right away.
However, there is a big drawback to business cards.  People have my email address.  They use it.  I am drowning in email, and not the spam kind you can immediately delete.  Every day, I receive heaps of emails that need to be responded to thoughtfully, and often require fact-checking, database-checking, checking with our all-knowing front-desk manager, etc.  Responding to these emails is enjoyable, and I learn a lot from all those various kinds of checking.  But there are just not enough hours in the day.
I do love my job, though.  I was thinking today about my favorite part, and I think it's actually the high school visits, as long as they have an acceptable number of students.  Zero students is a little sad.  54 students who have just been handed their yearbook hall-of-fame ballot and are filling it out while I talk is scary, not to mention bad for my self-esteem.  In-between seems to be good, and I especially love talking to a student one-on-one.    
Okay, back to the emails.  Chances are, if you're reading this, I miss you!

Compare and Contrast, part 2

Things Sasquatch and I have in common:

• Ginger hair
• Greenish eyes
• Reckless enthusiasm (stoked about everything)
• Love for Travis
• Love of the outdoors
• Enjoy snuggling/physical contact
• Emit large amounts of body heat
• Don't like to be alone
• Love naps
• Very flexible (physically)
• Very stubborn
• Love food
• No personal space boundaries
• Small enough Travis can pick us up/big enough that it's awkward

Ways in which I am not like my dog:

• Different species
• Sasquatch likes to lick things
• I have a job
•  And . . . that's about it

Infestation!

Well, the word infestation might be hyperbole.  Infestation is when there are literally hundreds of crickets in your store, and you spend weeks taking them off the clothes and floor (and dodging when they fall from the ceiling) and throwing them outside.  True Capezio story. 
This is nothing like that.
However, we do have a problem.  There are yellow jackets in our house.  How many have we found?  At least a dozen, probably closer to twenty.  Four at once in the corner window.  And today, the first sting.  Through my clothes, in the kitchen.  Maybe he didn't want pasta for dinner? 
Yellow jackets are scary, because 1)their stings are super painful (even three hours later!), 2)they do not die when they sting, and 3) they like to crawl around on the floor, where unsuspecting puppies might lick them up.  Travis has been using yellow-jacket spray, and on Tuesday the management company is sending someone out to do a treatment on our house.  In the mean time, I am treading with caution.  Do you think yellow jackets prefer chicken for dinner?

Unitasker and multitasker, sitting in a tree

I have been on the road for 4 weeks now (with at least one day home each weekend- I'm not that hard core).  I have been reduced to bullet points:

• I love when technology is unintentionally sarcastic: "You beat your high score by a whopping one point!"
• This has been a week of revelations for me.  I realized something about Travis on Monday: he is a uni-tasker!  That's the opposite of a multi-tasker, and a term introduced to me by the author of My Life as an Experiment (I did not read this book, but merely flipped through it in the airport bookstore.  College taught me to glean a lot from skimming).  This explains a thousand things about my marriage all at once.  I could fill an entire blog (not an entry- a blog) with things Travis' uni-tasking explains.  It is strange that this wouldn't be obvious, but Travis' brain is wired in a different way than mine.  He is wired to be extremely hard-working and focused, and is incapable of giving up an unfinished task and turning to another without great distress.  This is why Travis is a better driver than me, more observant, and quicker at getting things done.  It is also the reason why he doesn't love it when I talk during movies, try to discuss our marriage while he's fixing things, or suggest that he take a nap and come back to a project later.  I am the source of so much stress!  And this is just the tip of the iceberg that is "the ways I unintentionally stress out my long-suffering husband."
• You may have noticed that the Rangers won their first post-season series.  Ever.  This is an occasion for great joy in our home.  Travis has all sorts of traditions about watching the games, most of which have to do with wearing Rangers clothes.  The rules seem a little amorphous, but the gist is:
• Travis must wear a Rangers shirt, preferably a fresh clean one (I suppose this second part has more to do with hygiene than superstition, which makes me really glad I married Travis and not one of those "superstition over hygiene" guys).
• It is very very bad luck for me to take the Rangers hat off Travis's head during the game and put it on my head.  (See bullet point above about ways I stress out Travis.)
• It is, however, fine for Sasquatch to wear the hat . . .
• . . . but only if Travis is the one that puts it on her head.
• Lots of restaurants have delicious take-out, but some can make you feel sick the next day.  I've had good luck with Mongolian BBQ's taste-wise, but not stomach-wise.  Regular BBQ is usually fine on the stomach, but much more unpredictable in taste.  I have the second best BBQ of my life at Baldy's BBQ in Bend, OR last week (the best is Salt Lick BBQ, or Travis' brisket slow-cooked with Salt Lick sauce).  Tonight I had good-but-not-life-changing BBQ from Best Little Roadhouse in Salem, OR.  But it might have been better if they'd had pork ribs.  I always try baby-back ribs thinking I love them (years of Chili's commercial indoctrination is hard for my subconscious to ignore), but turns out I don't.  What I love are pork ribs.  Pork ribs in Salt Lick BBQ sauce . . . 
• I always stay up too late if I start blogging!  It's not as if you can afford to come into work groggy when the first thing you do is talk to a group of high schoolers at 8 am.  On Tuesday I was tired and drove past the high school in the fog, and was late!  Time to go to sleep.

Findings

Oh my.  Did you know you can look and see what people searched for when they first found your blog?  I didn't, but now I do.  Here are the results:

six flags

men's dance belt

nabisco crackers

donny sibbett indianola

huskissons.blogspot.com

wheat thins box

funny happy birthday coworker

guadalupe peak trip report

jeannie huskisson austin dance

lord of the rings wiki Wow.  One of those made me cry, and several made me laugh.  And men's dance belts?!  It's pretty disturbing to me that someone could be searching for dance belts and find my blog.  Maybe I need to remove that post.

Displaced

Sassy and I have discovered a new element in our relationship: competition.  We have great love and respect for one another, but lately I've noticed that we clash on one major issue: we both think we are Travis' main girl.  We both have every right to feel this way.  I am married to Travis, so obviously I would feel entitled.  And Sasquatch puts in the hours.  Four to six days a week, Sassy is the one sleeping curled up next to Travis on the bed, the one perched next to him on the couch while he watches the Rangers game, and the one he pours his heart out to in his daily tear-filled emotional outburst (that was a joke for people who know Travis).  But seriously, for all she does while I am gone, Sasquatch deserves a medal.  And instead, she gets displaced.  One to three times a week, I come home and take her spot on the bed, and on the couch, and I can just see the bewilderment on her open little face.  "What did I do?  Where do I sit?" her expressive eyebrows say.  So we try to fit her, but then I get bumped off the bed, the couch.  

Last night I was complaining about it, and Travis said "A dog is man's best friend." 

"I thought I was your best friend!" I protested.

"That's the saying," Travis replied.  "It doesn't say woman is man's best friend.  It says dog is man's best friend."

So there you go: I think we have our victor.  And for some reason, it only makes me smile.

Yes, I watch the Rangers games.

Travis with his main girl

Things to avoid in the future

A list:
1) Highway 242 through the Willamette National Forest and Mackenzie Pass.  1.5 hours of nausea and stress, with some beautiful moments but mostly roads so windy I couldn't look anywhere else.
2) Booking high school visits at 8 am.  High schoolers don't seem to enjoy being at school at this hour, and they sure don't want to schlep it over to the library and talk about 4 more years of school.
3) Booking high school visits at 2 pm.  See above.
4) Trying to get gas in Eugene, OR in a time crunch.  Make that anywhere in Oregon.  It is infuriating to me to not be able to pump my own gas, which I am capable of doing very quickly, and without waiting for the attendant to come outside/finish up with 4 other cars first.  I know I am a total insensitive jerk for saying this, and it offends my leftist politics, but sometimes catching a flight home feels more important than job creation.
5) Rushing through airport security before checking to see if there is food on the other side (vending machines do not count, since it is a huge hassle to purchase anything with cash/without a receipt when traveling on business), when you haven't eaten a meal since 6:30 am and your next stop is at 8 pm.

At least I like learning.

Complimentary bottled water provided

I've finished two weeks in Montana, and am half-way through my first week in Oregon.  So far Oregon is proving far more eventful!  Travel stories:

• Today a high school senior bowed to me.  It was a serious bow, too.  Awesome, but also super awkward, because I had no idea what to do back!  I kind of tilted my head.
• At Monday's fair in Roseburg I was interviewed by one of the news shows in Eugene.  I stayed in Medford that night, so I have no idea if it even aired.  Then today, I was taped talking to a student by a local Medford station!  The other reps were teasing me about all the air time.  I think it's because my table is always on the very edge of the room (it's usually alphabetical), and so there aren't too many people around and you can get the whole fair in the background.
• There is bottled water at every fair.  Often they come up and put more on your table when you're too busy talking to a student to protest.  I brought home 8 empty water bottles to recycle from 4 days in Montana.  My car is full of them now, but I'm flying home so I hope my next hotel recycles!  
• Best conversation with a student so far: 

            Sophomore boy (surrounded by friends): Where is Whitworth?

Me: It’s in Spokane, Washington.  Have you heard of it?
SB: No.
Me: Well it’s the second largest city in Washington.  (points it out on the map)

SB: What’s the largest?

Me: Seattle

SB (Getting quicker now): What’s the third largest?

Me: Tacoma

SB (really fast): Fouth?

Me (super flustered): Um, Bellevue?*

SB (almost yelling now): Quick!  What’s your favorite movie?!

Me: Wayne’s World.

SB and all of his friends, with blank stares on their faces: What’s Wayne’s World?

 After which I felt really old, and told them I was disappointed, and they should watch it.  *Turns out   it's Vancouver, which you probably would have known, but I am terrible at geography.

• Had a fender bender yesterday.  Very frustrating, but the police were helpful and understanding, and both cars were fine.  I called Travis first because it's just instinct for me to call Travis right away, but he reminded me that I need to tell my work, not him!  
• I am getting used to staying in a different hotel every night of the week.  Strange.  Also strange is that Travis and I are getting into a routine of only seeing each other on the weekends.  He admitted last night that it will be weird to have me home all the time again.  It's true, actually; I've never really lived in our new home with Travis, so I'm sure it will be different for him to have me there, carving out space and making messes and interfering with his established patterns.  
• Biggest lifesaver on the road: books on CD.  I drove 1300 miles my first week in Montana, 900 my second, and I'm getting up there this week already.  But I've never once felt drowsy or spacey, because the books always keep me awake and focused.  But they're not loud enough to be distracting.  So far I've "read" a modern romantic comedy (skipped the inappropriate parts; I am every bit as embarrassed hearing about people's fictional intimate moments as I would be spying on someone's real ones), a very long work of historical fiction about the royal family in 15th century England, and am working on a Michael Crichton thriller.  Next is another historical fiction, this one about the formation of the modern Middle East in the 1920s-40s.  (Skipped the rest of the thriller and moved on to this. It's terrific!  Has made me laugh out loud and cry already, plus the main character has a sweet and loving dog.)  Sometimes I get so hooked that I want to keep listening when I get to my hotel, but I've made a rule that I can only listen on the road.  That way I actually look forward to the drives.
• Biggest headache on the road: non-smoking rooms that smell like smoke.  I've never thought of myself as allergic to cigarette smoke, but aside from the moderate annoyance of smelling gross all the time, some of these rooms are giving me bad headaches.  One was so bad that I thought I had a full-on migraine, but then I went for a walk and within 15 minutes in the fresh air my head was fine.  I am getting savvy about requesting rooms far away from the smoking rooms, and about looking for hotels that are 100% non-smoking.  Next year that's going to be a major factor in booking my hotels.  Also, how do you get the smell of stale smoke out of your favorite pillow?!
• I've seen some really beautiful places.  I pulled over at a park in Montana one day and put my feet in Flathead Lake.  I've driven through many mountain ranges and alongside rivers.  I haven't taken nearly enough pictures.  I'll admit that I'm less-inclined to stop and be touristy than I would be if I were with family or friends.  
• I still, after 2.5 weeks of travel, haven't braved eating in a sit-down restaurant alone.  Most sit-downs do take-out, though you can tell that they sometimes resent it (maybe because of the lost tips?).  So lots of take-out, and lots of putting together meals at the grocery store.  I'm super tired of continental breakfasts and complimentary college fair food (read: bagels, muffins, cookies), and getting a little tired of the kind of food you can easily carry out (Chinese, pizza).  It may be that I get desperate soon, suck up my pride, and eat by myself at an actual table.  I did this once in Italy because my confident European professor told us she did it all the time, and that it was a liberating experience that every young woman should enjoy from time to time.  About 30 minutes into my meal (I was only doing the eat alone thing half-way, because I was reading a book), my professor showed up at the same restaurant!  She came over and said hi, then told me that she was going to go sit by herself so as not to rob me of the experience.  The Italians just looked sorry for me, though I did enjoy reading and eating at the same time, as I often do.  The only book I have with me right now, though, is called Heal Your Headache, and talks all about the myriad foods I shouldn't be eating, many of which would, I'm sure, show up in just about any dish I could order at a restaurant.  Not sure how to proceed . . . 

Oops!  Time to go to the next high school visit, then drive the 4 hours to Bend!  Chances are, if you're reading this, I miss you!