[Gossamer's Scrapbook] The Ethereal Canyon I

[Laszlo]

I've been seeing all the effort you're putting into Riverfall. I made this picture for you! Maybe I'll make a banner out of it!

[Phoenix]

Nooooo! Not the TwIlight wolf men!

[Gossamer]

. Geese & Driving Truck So I should talk about why Jules' sign meant so much to me. She knows the story which is probably why she made the sign, but I didn't post anything about it here because I have been run down, kicked around, and feeling OMG overwhelmed with real life. First off, my partner at work has been absent because he took vacation for his birthday. Incidentally that vacation came at one of the busiest times I've seen in months at work, so my boss gave me some help - a guy with three days training. He was... worthless. So not only was I 'training' but I was carrying what should have been a three hostler load with 1.5 hostlers. Then... to top that off, my boss gave me an actual trainee on Friday which I had absolutely ZERO time to train. I literally gave the guy a truck and trailer and since he had no freight experience I had him back up to the two hundred plus freight doors at our facility for practice. I think he did well, but about 8 hrs of this on his part was just ridiculous. I felt so bad. I have to deal with him on Monday (today?) so I can get him a little further in his training. Until then though I just have to make due. We need the help, but we also need guys that are ready to get out there and go in a safe manner. So... then after dealing with a completely and utterly exhausting friday... I literally crawled home and could barely walk I was so tired... I had to get up and drive on Saturday. Now I had what was considered one of the more disgusting runs in the fleet, but in the end I enjoyed the drive. Now its crappy because its really really narrow and we can't take a normal 53ft truck and trailer in there. You can barely get a 27 ft pup in there without kissing the wall. My boss, the wonderful guy he is, gave me a 34 ft pup and a 27ft pup for a total of about 70 feet of truck and trailer to herd down the road and figure out what to do with once I get to the place I made the delivery. Now this place used to be very easy to get into, but they tore up the big parking lot and put in a fuel island to sell discount gas. So now we have to break our sets up in the alley and back each box around each other with just about two or three inches of clearance on each side. Great. Right? Well its a challenge. I got there, the guy rolled up the door, took a look at me and I know he thought... OH GREAT A FUCKING GIRL. He told me not to worry about how long it took to get in the dock and when I got it done in one shot.. meaning I backed it straight in with no pull ups or adjustements he was floored. I told him I was a hostler. All I did was back up all day.. going foward was the hard part. But no not really, switching the boxes around and getting both boxes unloaded at the same place was really the hard part. Here's some photos. I should have taken a pic of me in the dock, and I will next time I have to drive. Here's what I had to drive... all glorious 70+ feet of it (in the pouring rain)... and here's a clearer idea of what I had to do. It was a whole lot easier than I thought it was going to be and I did in fact text or call a few drivers crowing that I made Lynnwood my bitch... but that's another story. It was funny at the time. Now, it just seems silly. But anyhow, so I got home around midnight Saturday and slept until noon the next day... today? Yesterday? I'm not sure. I do know in a few hours I'll have to go back in and do it all over again hostling wise. But it shouldn't be that bad. My partner will be back. Anyhow.. back to the geese. That was a long digression. We have a ton of Wildlife in Washington and my workplace is no different. We have about a hundred resident geese, fifteen species of ducks (still counting new ones daily), tons of other birds, pet crows, pet ravens, a one-legged sea gull, coyotes, wild dogs, foxes, and a lot of little predators like river otter. My favorite pair of geese have been nesting all month and this year she built her nest in the middle of some dividing land between two ponds. Normally this is where she builds her nest and everything is fine, but this year we're staring down the barrel of the wettest march in history and its literally rained every day for a month to the tune of about 8 inches or more. We're flooding. This isn't abnormal but the three ponds out front of my facility have turned into one giant unipond and I've been worried. Each day I was watching the water rise and get closer and closer to her giant goose nest. And thurs when I left I was so sad because I knew if it kept raining all night she'd be under water. I came in friday and sure enough.. .the nest was totally underwater. I was really sad.. it made me feel like shit for about two hours just thinking those eggs were gone and all her hard work was gone with it. I tried to ignore it, but it really made my day crap on top of everything else... until... I came around the corner about six o'clock at night and saw her, her mate, and seven goslings toddling across a dry patch of land to get to another wet patch of land.. and I was so happy that I had to call Jules and tell her that my geese family was fine. No matter how bad friday got, I was buzzing all day about it because I had no idea she'd already got them hatched out and walking around with such vigor even in the pouring rain. So... even though the week is over.. and the weekend is over and a new week is starting, it was still a worthwhile week. My geese family was fine and that made everything better. I can't wait for flight practice in the next three months when they grow to size, fledged out, and begin awkwardly taking their first little flights. .

[Gossamer]

. I Am Not Your Therapist Seriously people... repeat after me.... Recently I’ve had a rash of PMs from people that seem to need, no demand, my attention in regards to their real life. I’ve come to see the messages as not really mattering all that much because the content is pretty much uniformly the same. They are undergoing some crisis of humanity, fighting with their bosses/parents/spouses/children/best friends and things aren't going their way. They are caught up in the heat of the moment and its like they look around, reach out, and need someone – anyone – to hear their side of the story and I suspect agree with them wholeheartedly that whatever it is they are doing or whatever action they are taking is the perfect and right one. Problem is, I'm not involved. I even suspect they need sympathy and want it from a source that perhaps naturally does not have a lot of it laying around. Maybe sympathy from generally unsympathetic people is higher quality understanding than sympathy from naturally sympathetic people who offer it out like candy gets passed around on Halloween. Whatever the reason, I get constantly baffled at the quality and content of PMs that are sent my way and how they range from superficially chatty to incredibly well spoken to sickeningly sweet flowery downright ugh inducing vomit fests. But here’s the deal. Invariably somewhere in the neighborhood of ten minutes later (give or take a week or two) generally feelings will change regardless of what I have to say or what my thoughts on the topic are. Whatever is blowing up in someone’s life always tends to blow over. They get some sleep, a day off work, come up with the money, finally find a thread partner worth a shit, or somehow get passed it all on their own and then its not a crisis any longer but a slightly blush inducing embarrassing overboil that happened X amount of time ago. I am needed nowhere in this scenario. I think if one looks at these types of PMs in my frustrated overextended sort of way they are truthfully meaningless. There’s nothing new or inspiring, certainly nothing urgent or revealing, contained within their depths. In fact I equate them as if they are a session of a mage’s overgiving here on Mizahar in thread and definitely something people should know better than to do. How dare you expect me, Goss, to be your counselor and life coach? I want to certainly reach out and shake the person PMing me and make them stop. I refuse to be responsible for your choices in life nor for your over the top behavior here on the game. And if I want to run some commentary about it, I probably will regardless of your feelings on the issue. You reap what you sow and you’d best get busy with the harvest. Seriously real men and women need not apply for permission to be who they are in my PM box, nor beg forgiveness from me for their behavior. In fact real people, regardless of age sex race or orientation, know who they are and what they stand for. They don’t need me to interpret things for them. If you are my friend, I do not mind hearing about your life and in fact expect to. But there’s a vast difference from my being a name you recognize and my being your friend. Some of the storytellers on here have thread tickets evidently. I do not. Instead I have friend tickets, and just so you know, most of them are sold out. And if you have one, you know it. So odds are you don't. I don’t mind making more and printing up a new batch, but it doesn’t happen overnight or just because I’ve been nice to you in the past. So, I am a lot of things in life: Wife, Artist, Writer, Traveler, Scientist, Scrapbooker, Naturalist, Birder, Founder, and even Mother if one counts my critters. But I am not… and I repeat this… I am not your Therapist. Please get this through your head. .

[Verilian]

Yeah, I totally hate when people do that. >.>

[Kadrath Onktaka]

For you:
"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."
Maya Angelou

Or maybe,
"You can chase a butterfly all over the field and never catch it. But if you sit quietly in the grass it will come and sit on your shoulder."

[Gossamer]

. How To Get Your Friend Ticket Revoked So.. none of my friends can resist being smartasses. Some show more restraint than others. This friend evidently has no restraint at all. I'm revoking his friend ticket. I would have done it immediately but I'm too damn tired from working all these hours and having no time off. I thought this week would be better, but alas no breaks. I'm reduced to myself and a trainee that has big time hearing loss helping me out at work. Anyhow, this was a pm response to my latest blog. Jerkface. I'll get you. I'll get you good. Be prepared. When you least expect it I'm going to tease and tease and tease. I Have a Problem and Only You Can Solve it Sent: Wed Apr 04, 2012 2:06 pm From: EDITED OUT FOR OBVIOUS REASONS To: Gossamer Jen, Things have really sucked in my life lately. Just the other day I was walking down the street when this man shot me a dirty look. I mean, wtf is that!? Why would he shoot me a dirty look? I didn't do anything to make him angry. I don't even know the guy. I recently took a shower, so I know that I don't smell bad. Plus he was like, across the street, so he couldn't smell me anyway most likely. I wasn't dressed funny, or in gang clothing. I was just wearing normal everyday blue jeans, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap with a generic, non-offensive logo on it. So why on earth would he shoot me a dirty look? I really lost a lot of sleep over this. I don't need everybody to like me, but for one random guy I don't even know to shoot me a dirty look when I was doing absolutely nothing wrong.. I just.. it's really bothering me. What is it about me that he didn't like? Did I give off some sort of terrible aura? Does he know something about me that I don't? Anyway.. I was really hoping for your advice on this, because you are such an awesome person and I know that you always know what to say to make everything right? Why did this guy shoot me a dirty look? Is he going to do it again the next time he sees me, assuming I ever happen to be walking in that area and he also happens to be there again? Am I just making a big deal out of nothing? Or is there really and truly something terribly wrong with me? Please, Jen, console me. I'll always be grateful to you, ~EDITED OUT FOR OBVIOUS REASONS .

[Verilian]

Sheesh, what a jerk.

[Trident]

Something tells me Gossamer is secretly laughing. But she can't tell anyone, because she's Gossamer. Oh, what a sad life you live, Jen!

Anyways, I have a problem and only you can help me fix it. Lets talk over PM.

[Gossamer]

i have no sense of humor.