happiness – Ahuva’s Blog

Happy Birthday to Me

IMG_8905 (1) So now a post about a hotel that does things right…. Okay, that’s probably not fair. The staff at the Four Points did all they could to help make a bad situation (no a/c) better. The complaint really should be directed at the management in charge of the infrastructure. Be that as it may, we fled the Sheraton Sunday morning and spent most of the day running around again in the 100+ degree temperature.

We arrived at the Hilton Phoenix/Chandler a little after 5pm. I have no idea how many miles we’ve logged on the car by this point. We have been all around Tempe, around Chandler, to and from Scottsdale, pretty much everywhere but Phoenix itself. I was hot, headache-y, dehydrated (my fault) and thoroughly done with all of the errands we’d been doing (more about that in a different post). Today is my birthday. I’ll be spending most of it alone at the hotel. When we checked in at the front desk yesterday we told the front desk clerk how thrilled we were to be there. We began to tell her the highlights (lowlights?) of the last 4 evenings. When we mentioned no a/c she looked truly horrified and said that she thought that might actually be illegal in Arizona. We told her our woes and she immediately wrote a voucher for 2 free drinks from the bar. 🙂 I thanked her and said that it would be a wonderful birthday treat as my birthday was the next day.

We went up to our room on the Executive level. The room was nice, had WORKING a/c, access to the Executive lounge, free breakfast, and I have a late, 2pm checkout. We changed into our bathing suits, stopped at the lobby bar to get directions to the pool and ask about hours for our free drinks. The bartender offered to put our drinks in plastic cups so we could take them to the pool. *huge grin* We accepted. We had the pool to ourselves. It was great. There was a faint breeze (warm of course but at least moving air). After the pool, it was perfect (I even was a bit chilled). We went into the whirlpool. Ahhhh, jets on my aching back. We sipped our drinks. The woman in charge of public areas, Luisa, came by and we had a great chat with her. She was the first native-to-Phoenix area we’d met. We talked weather, and which Hilton I should use when I come back to visit my son in February. (I confess, I’m going to miss my yearly February trip to see him in FLORIDA.) Luisa was lovely and very helpful. When we went back inside she introduced us to one of the managers and mentioned my birthday. *grin*

We changed and went back to the lobby bar/grill for dinner. The food was fantastic, much to my surprise. I know we are off-season and it did not appear that there were many people there, so it could have been possible to have the kitchen off its game. Not the case. The same bartender also took our order and knew how to make my G&Ts (yes, plural) just the way I like. I had a very interesting chat with my son and learned more about his writing work, the details of which I’d never quite understood. At the end of our meal the front desk attendant came to comp us a dessert for my birthday, and the bartender comped me a drink. It was absolutely lovely. We came back upstairs and luxuriated in the COOL room.

This morning we took advantage of our executive breakfast privileges. My son headed off for his first day of work at the new job, and I came back to my COOL room to blog. 🙂 In a bit I will change into my bathing suit and head to the pool. Keeping with this theme of hardship and suffering today, I need to search for a place for birthday dinner and first-day-of-work celebration. We’re thinking steak. I have a red-eye out at 11pm tonight. I have checked in and it seems that I am still in 1st class, and my plane is on time. May it be so – don’t fail me, United!!!! Let’s end this travel on a positive note!!!!!!

I can’t not say this

because I am so happy. bursting with joy daily. exhausted but exhilarated. this applies to so many people, for so many different things.

dancing-in-joy

You opened the door,
encouraged me. I stepped through
into my new self.

or taking an excerpt from my current “anthem”, “If Today Was Your Last Day”, Nickelback:

You know it’s never too late to shoot for the stars
Regardless of who you are
So do whatever it takes
‘Cause you can’t rewind a moment in this life
Let nothin’ stand in your way
Cause the hands of time are never on your side

Thank you

This past week has been a very full week. A bit of an emotional roller-coaster. There were definitely some points in this week that were a bit difficult. Things got better, however, as they usually do when you take a moment to breathe in, relax, breathe out. Many good things began happening, with perhaps the most exciting happening at the very end of the work week. I received some feedback on the work I’ve been doing. *grin* Positive feedback, in case you were wondering. I feel extremely happy and proud. I would even say “validated”.

In my mind, I see a straight progression from the day I first heard about “SL” to the end of this week. The mind is wonderful that way. 🙂 It can make sense out of anything if it so chooses. I was talking with a friend last night, discussing everything. She made the point that I did the work. Yes, that is true. But in my mind and heart – I could do the work and push forward and stay determined because of my friends. Actually – these people were not my “friend” at the point where they reached out and offered a hand. (They are all my good friends today.) I see many people who could have simply shrugged and said “not MY problem” and ignored me. But they didn’t. Each one of these people made what probably seemed like a simply, easy gesture. But to me, the recipient – the combination of each of those little actions was life-changing.

It is so easy to be kind, to be helpful, to be generous. You can’t always see the consequences of your actions immediately. But it could be a life you are saving.

Perhaps you know this nursery rhyme:
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

I like the meter, I like the simplicity of the message of that nursery rhyme, but I don’t like that it’s a negative approach. I prefer to phrase things postively.

In response to an email a friendship was born –
Encouragement offered instead of just scorn.
In response to introductions more people were known
Volunteering accepted, a challenge was sown.
In response to distress call an offer was made
A task was completed and yes, “face” WAS saved.
In response to that project a new path was taken
A new life was picked, confidence still unshaken.
And all from the help of my friends.

Scripting Class

I really do take scripting class. Natalya joined our classes near the end of December. Then we all took a break through the holidays and the start of the new year. But we got back into it today. I started nagging Hell, because I have so many projects piling up and I need to get some of them underway. 🙂 Isn’t that a wonderful problem to have? I have real work to do. I’m being paid to login to SL. Work can’t get any better than that. Let me say yet again: I have the most wonderful friends, incredible management, and great coworkers. Oh yeah – and a really cool teacher.

So, I sit and listen to Hell as he lectures and demos and I try out the sample problems he gives. I’m working on a project to improve a dance floor. /me waves hi to Shenlei! So we reviewed things like linking prims, how distance can prevent linking, positioning objects when they rez, getting their local position. I’d missed a key notion about linked prims. I find that is often the case for me. I’m told something the first time. It seems to make sense and I think I know what is meant. But later it comes up again at a time when I have more knowledge and experience. And I realize that what I THOUGHT I knew was incorrect. Little incremental shifts in focus and knowledge. It’s incredibly exciting.

So we all agreed on what the first step of this project should be. I went over my notes. I know what I have to do. Then I asked them to test out something that I need for one of my RL projects. It was in the house so we left the beach and headed in. I was quite pleased to see that I did indeed know how to work the projector. Quite satisfying, actually.

Then *I* turned my attention to work – fielding emails, checking on other issues. I could hear laughter in my headset. Looked up to discover myself being knocked down the stairs of my house. Hell was attacking me with a beach ball. I ask you: Is this proper behavior when you are a guest in someone’s home??? No, of course not. No matter how funny it may look. 🙂 (Look carefully to the right of the open door – you can see my doorbell!!!! 🙂 Remember the doorbell? )

So I found myself on the first floor, which became inundated with beach balls. I’m sorry to say that Nat got led astray and was joining in the trouble-making. I was attempting to work while they filled the house to bursting with beach balls. Beach balls bursting through the walls and out the front door. Filling both floors. THEN sporks appeared. Now I know why I keep the first floor empty. I need a playroom.

Next to rez was a carrot gun that shot carrots, of course. I rezzed one of my lucky-chair couches so we could test the pose balls, hoping that might settle the high spirits. No such luck. Next was a truck. It started as a cute little truck and grew and grew and grew into a monster truck. I jumped onto the couch to avoid it while Nat sat on it to avoid being run over. Again I was forced to tear my attention from IMPORTANT work when I heard “I don’t think she’s looking”. LOL. It was like having little kids playing in the next room. “She’s not looking – I think we can get away with it now.” So I looked. Discovered the truck parked on my derriere. Now look. I admit that I am curvy. But I am not SO curvy that you can park a truck on me!!!!!! Sheesh.

I had to remove the couch when Hell started spinning me in circles. I really did NOT want to puke all over. Does NOT pay to give some people privileges, that’s all I am going to say about THAT. So I went back upstairs, hoping to avoid the children. Or perhaps I went back upstairs following an errant truck. Whatever. I stretched out on my bed and tried yet again to focus on work. Only to look up and find magic crayon marking all over my art work, my bed, my walls. Sigh. Finally the miscreants were caged in their own pencil drawings and I could get back to work. 🙂 Can’t wait for our NEXT class!

HORSES!!!!

I am incoherent with joy!! I haven’t been riding in years. And that was a controlled experience – trail rides in Bryce and Zion National Parks. But last night I was in heaven. Shenlei Flashheart was having a riding party to demo her free horse rezzer. (See Shenlei’s article here. )As soon as I heard “horses” I wangled an invitation. 🙂 There we were in beautiful Shengri La. I didn’t think anything could be more beautiful than Shengri La but I was wrong – Shengri La with HORSES!!! I got up on the saddle rezzer, “wore” my horse and was transported. We had our choice of saddle style, blanket color/pattern, gait, wings and more. We walked and cantered and galloped and flew. I could hear my steed’s hooves thundering on the turf as we charged across the hillside. We galloped across the land, splashed through the surf, flew across the water. Then when we finally “tired” we stood in the beautiful swirling water, resting our faithful mounts, chatting with friends. Oh Shenlei – thank you, thank you, thank you for allowing me to ride your horses. Such a wonderful, fantastical evening. I am beside myself with happiness! For everyone else who wants to go riding, see Chestnut’s wonderful write-up of our ride.