They wined and dined us

 After 2 years and 2 months, the place where I'm temporarily working was finally opened up again for people to return to work in person.  People did have the option of continuing to work at home if their supervisors approved it but it was strongly encouraged to at least work a hybrid type schedule with a few days in the office and a few days at home.  Since I've only been working there since last June and since the nature of my job involves having to be physically there in the building, this was a nonissue for me about returning to the office since I always worked in person since I started there.

To encourage employees to come back in, management offered a week of special events and food.  Everything was opened to everyone, regardless if you were returning back to the office or had been working in the office all along.  Here is the schedule of events for the week.  And I don't work for Amazon though I thought the smiley here looked a lot like the smile on the Amazon logo.  

These are the items that were in the goodie bag in addition to the free samples we got from the Don Francisco coffee truck that was there on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings.  We also got to enter into a raffle for winning a big basket of coffee (hope I win!)

Every morning there was breakfast in the cafeteria.  It was muffins, donuts, granola bars, and fruit. Not the most healthiest of breakfasts but I still got something sweet every morning.  To heck with the diet this week.  My mom said to never pass up free food :)

On Monday lunch was provided with a grab and go concept.  There were sandwiches, salads, some foods you could heat up like salmon and rice, macaroni and cheese, and cookies. Lots of cookies.  Also lots of food.  I think they were anticipating a bigger crowd.  They encouraged people to come back and take some food home with them.  I grabbed a couple of salads to bring home.  

Here is my lunch from Monday:  (Actually the sandwiches was my lunch; I had one cookie and brought the rest home to hubby.  The sandwiches were so big that I had one for lunch on Monday and the other one for lunch on Tuesday).  

Wednesday they brought in a food truck.  It was an old fire truck converted to a food truck.  The name of the company was Fire Up Freedom.  

On the menu were cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and chicken sandwiches.  Best cheeseburger I have had in a bit!

On Thursday they listed an event happening at 4 p.m. that was called "Thirsty Thursday."  I wasn't sure what it would be.  I was wondering if it would be like ice cream sodas or something like that.  Someone at work said it was going to be beer and wine.  I went to the cafeteria to check it out and sure enough it was beer and wine, as well as soft drinks.  I didn't drink since I work until 4:30 (lol) and also I don't drink and drive.  But they had beer on tap, some wine and some drinks like margaritas in a can.  Each person who wanted to participate got 2 tickets; each ticket representing one drink.  That was the limit  you could have (2 drinks).  Those in charge of dispensing the drinks also stamped the person's hand when giving them the drink so no one would get more than 2 drinks.  

We no longer have to get health checked when we report to work (previously had to have our temperatures taken, answer questions if we were sick or exposed to someone with Covid, etc and then got a printed badge with our picture on it stating we had passed the health check for the day).

Honestly, I didn't see too many new to me people in the office so I think a lot of people are still trying to work from home if at all possible.  Wednesday was the only day it was super busy there and that is because one of the departments had a face to face meeting so all employees had to come in.  

So not much change except we did get wined and dined this week.  That was fun (and fattening).  

Have a great weekend!

Mother's Day 2007

Abby wrote in her blog, AbbyNormal, about a memorable Mother's Day.  It was a prompt from Mama Kat's blog that I'm not super familiar with.  However, after reading Abby's post, about her memorable Mother's Day and Mother Day thoughts in general, I thought I would share the story of my Mother's Day in 2007.

I know I have shared this story before on one of my blogs, but I don't remember which blog, though I know it wasn't on any recent blog and as I have some new readers, I thought why not share it again. I had not thought of this Mother's Day for years until just a few days ago, even before reading Abby's blog about her memorable Mother's Days.  So maybe it is time to share it again.

My mom died on December 13, 2006 at the age of 85 years old. She had lived a good long life but you know how you want your moms to live longer.  If your mom is still alive, treasure the time spent with her.  You won't regret any moment that you do.

My mom got sick at the end of November 2006 and got admitted to the hospital with what would be diagnosed as fungal pneumonia. She was pretty darn sick.  She lived in the Washington DC area with my sister and her family and at the time my husband, son, and me were living in Southern California; having just moved down from Montana a few months before in June 2006.  My sister kept my brother and me informed of my mom's illness, progress, etc.  My sister pointblank asked the doctors how much time my mom would have in case family members wanted to come and visit. The doctors pointblank said 10-14 days.  My sister relayed that info to us. 

My brother, his wife and one of his grown children went to visit my mom and said goodbye to her basically.  I was in denial.  I did not think my mom would pass.  I did not go and visit her.  The night before she died, she was the most alert she had been during the whole hospitalization. I thought she had been buoyed by my brother's visit (her favorite though she would never admit he was her favorite) and I thought she had made a turning point to getting better. My sister later commented that during the whole time she was visiting my mom, my mom was very alert but she kept looking beyond my sister.  Almost like she was seeing someone else in the room.......(I like to think perhaps it was Jesus calling her home). A few hours later my mom slipped into a coma and it was decided to withdraw care as she was not getting better nor would get better and let her peacefully pass.  I said goodbye to her over the phone.  I like to think she heard me.  

In the interest of keeping this short and not novel length, I won't list why and try to explain why, but I did not go to her funeral.  Looking back, I would have done both (gone to visit her and her funeral) and I regret not doing so, but you can't take back something after the fact. 

I grieved like anyone would grieve losing their mom.  And life went on. 

Mother's Day 2007 rolled around. I already knew it was going to be a tough day. The first one without my mom alive. So I braced myself the best I could, knowing there would be tears. 

I got a wonderful gift though from God.  And yes, there were tears, but there was also a wonderful gift.

At that time, I was volunteering in the nursery of the church we were going to.  I was scheduled to volunteer at the 9 o'clock service on Mother's Day.  Another lady was also scheduled to help out.  One baby was checked into the nursery that morning for the 9 o'clock service.  A little boy.  I would have known his name but in these close to 15 years, I have forgotten it.

In the course of the time we were together, the other volunteer and me, we talked as volunteers tended to do.  I knew her from a few other times working with her. She told me that her nephew's wife had lost a baby just a few days before at 39 weeks pregnant.  She had not felt the baby move for a time, had gone in for a checkup and discovered the baby had died.  It was later said the cord had wrapped itself around the baby's neck.  Of course the family was devastated with the loss of the baby. 

I was mourning my first Mother's Day without my mom.

We both loved on the little baby in the nursery.  We took turns holding him as he was not mobile yet.  Just sitting up with support.  

Service ended and the parents came to pick him up.  We talked to them about how wonderfully cute their little boy was and how good he was during the time there in the nursery.  I asked how old he was and the mom said 5 months, saying he had been born in December.  I asked what day in December as I may (or may not) have a birthday in that month and I wanted to see (or not see) if his birthday might be close to my birthday (assuming I had a birthday in that month).  I may (or may not) advertise my birthday here on my blog.....

The baby's mom said "he was born December 13th".  I remember my eyes got big though I did not say anything about that day.  We finished talking with them, they left to carry on with their day, and I went into second service with my husband.  I cried through the whole service as I knew I would.  I don't remember what the sermon was about.  It may have been about mothers.  It may not have been.

I just remember thinking about how special of a gift it was to see that life had been born on the same day my mom had passed from this life to her eternal home with eternal life in heaven, and that I got to see that life in this little boy that I got to love on for an hour's time in the nursery, along with another grieving woman, grieving the loss of their new family member.

I did thank God for that very special gift that first Mother's Day without my mom.  

To those women who celebrate Mother's Day, Happy Mother's Day.  To those women who have trouble celebrating Mother's Day, I get it.  For whatever reason, it can be a hard day.  I had many a hard one with wanting to be a mom but not able to due to infertility.  And then the sadness of them with missing my own mom.  I kind of accept Mother's Days now.  We don't go overboard here in celebrating it and that is okay with me.

But Mother's Day 2007 will always have a special place in my heart (especially when I remember it).  

Oh gosh, now that I think about it, Mother's Day 2006 was pretty special too! But that is another story for another day! 

April Books

I do not know how I managed it, with the A/Z challenge and all, but I read 6 books during April.  I have to say I did really structure my time to make sure I was doing something constructive and not just scrolling through Facebook and the like, so I did a lot of reading on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and of course Monday through Friday mornings when exercising on the treadmill.

Here's the books I read in April (no particular order):

A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca.  

Taken from the web:  A Place to Stand is his memoir of childhood on small farms in New Mexico, his adolescence spent in orphanages and detention centers, his years as a drug dealer in San Diego and Arizona, and his extraordinary personal transformation under harrowing conditions behind bars.

It is a memoir and I usually don't read a lot of them.  I'm not sure why this particular book caught my attention to check out from our local library's e-book.  It was a fascinating story of the author who survived a traumatic childhood and adolescence and a 5 year prison time in a maximum security prison. During that time in prison he did learn to read and write (basically taught himself) and upon release from there did make a career writing poetry.  It was a hard read since there was a lot of tragedy within the pages, but redeeming at the end.  I give it 4.5 stars out of 5.

Heat Wave by Nancy Thayer.

From the web:  After her husband’s sudden death, Carley Winsted is determined to keep her two daughters in their beloved home on Nantucket. To ease the family’s financial strain, she decides to transform their grand, historic house into a bed-and-breakfast. Not everyone, however, thinks this plan prudent or quite respectable—especially not Carley’s mother-in-law. Further complicating a myriad of challenges, a friend forces Carley to keep a secret that, if revealed, will undo families and friendships. And her late husband’s former law partner is making Carley confront an array of mixed feelings. Then, during a late-summer heat wave, the lives of Carley and her friends and family will be forever changed in entirely unexpected ways.

I needed a book to read and none of the books I had on hold were available yet, so I found this book, again through my local library's e-books.  I had not read anything before by Nancy Thayer.  It was a light romance.  Very easy to read.  I read it over a weekend.  Predictable story with a few twists.  I give it 4 stars for a summer read on a beach, provided one is going to the beach for a summer vacation.  

Eli's Promise by Ronald Balson:

From the Web:   Eli's Promise is a masterful work of historical fiction spanning three eras—Nazi-occupied Poland, the American Zone of post-war Germany, and Chicago at the height of the Vietnam War. Award-winning author Ronald H. Balson explores the human cost of war, the mixed blessings of survival, and the enduring strength of family bonds.

It is a book about WW2 and the Holocaust but the story is actually told in 3 different time periods (as the war starts and the first few years, after the war, and 20 years later).  It is a story of promises made and broken and of betrayal.  I saw it on Sandy's blog.  Very fascinating story with a good plot.  Few surprises along the way.  I give it 5 stars.

The Stranger in the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom:

From the Web: What would happen if we called on God for help and God actually appeared? In Mitch Albom’s profound new novel of hope and faith, a group of shipwrecked passengers pull a strange man from the sea. He claims to be “the Lord.” And he says he can only save them if they all believe in him.

This was a short book and I read it over just a few days.  It was an interesting plot with some concepts to think about with life and faith.  Again, I give it 5 stars.

The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel:

From the Web:  After being stolen from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe, a young woman finds herself alone in 1941 after her kidnapper dies. Her solitary existence is interrupted, however, when she happens upon a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Stunned to learn what’s happening in the outside world, she vows to teach the group all she can about surviving in the forest—and in turn, they teach her some surprising lessons about opening her heart after years of isolation. But when she is betrayed and escapes into a German-occupied village, her past and present come together in a shocking collision that could change everything.

This was a bit of a mythical/magical type of book.  As stated above, the main character is kidnapped from her parents and raised by an old woman who teaches her how to survive in the woods.  The young woman does help Jews who are fleeing from the Nazis survive in the woods.  There was a very interesting unexpected twist in the story that was a big game changer with how I thought things would progress.  Very well written book.  Again, I'll give it 5 stars.  

Three Sisters by Heather Morris:

From the web:  Against all odds, three Slovakian sisters have survived years of imprisonment in the most notorious death camp in Nazi Germany: Auschwitz. Livia, Magda, and Cibi have clung together, nearly died from starvation and overwork, and the brutal whims of the guards in this place of horror. But now, the allies are closing in and the sisters have one last hurdle to face: the death march from Auschwitz, as the Nazis try to erase any evidence of the prisoners held there. Due to a last minute stroke of luck, the three of them are able to escape formation and hide in the woods for days before being rescued.  And this is where the story begins. From there, the three sisters travel to Israel, to their new home, but the battle for freedom takes on new forms. Livia, Magda, and Cibi must face the ghosts of their past--and some secrets that they have kept from each other--to find true peace and happiness.

I had read a couple of other books written by Heather Morris including Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka's Journey.  All these books were written as fictional history but based on true life stories.  All are based in WW2 and the Holocaust.  This one was a good story, as the others.  I give it 4.5 stars.  At the end of these books are pictures of the people the books are based on and their families.  It is nice to see that from all the suffering they endured during the war and in concentration camps, they were able to go on and live a life, get married and have children, etc.  

So now I am at 20 books for the year of my goal of 50.  I think I'll get there!

What are you reading these days? Anything good to recommend?