CoCo's Corner

What is a season?  Is it just those thirteen weeks or 91 1/4 days that make up a spring, summer, fall or winter?  Summer seems to be from Memorial Day to Labor Day, from the last day of school to the first day of school.  Though the official day is toward the end of September and we can have warm temperatures well into October, summer is ending. I can say that this summer has turned my world upside down.  In good ways - but, in some not so good ways.  I have spent this summer in the most amazing place in the world.  I have loved pretty much every second, every minute, every hour, every day of working at the airport.  I am seeing people come and go.  I have seen the good and the bad.  I've seen the normal and the strange.   I have had an amazing summer - even though I feel as though I have not had a summer.  I have hardly seen my family.  My husband and I are virtual strangers.  I hope to have time to make up for that...

The airport is an amazing place to be.  People watching there is extraordinary type of fun.  Thursdays, the "working girls" head to Vegas.  Families galore heading to John Wayne Airport or Orlando Airport.  Businessmen, hoping to get upgraded to first class, heading to their next appointment, meeting or wherever they go - and they go so often, they get those upgrades quite a bit. I think the thing that excites me the most is the awe that people have when they get here and see the mountains.  And they are probably just seeing that kind of beauty for the very first time.  It's something that we residents take for granted for the most part.  It's something we see every day.  But, when you see the excitement that comes from people arriving here - they stand their entire families in front of the windows so they can take a picture with the mountains as the background, you realize that we get to see this every day.  They stand and take photo after...

I just took a little jaunt, a little trip.  I have an extra day off this week, because someone I worked for last week is paying me back this week.  I decided to take advantage and use my flight benefits - mostly so I could just say that I did it.  No real other reason. As far as the trip goes, I did nothing.  Absolutely NOTHING.  I didn't even leave the hotel.  I ordered pizza in from a local pizzeria that delivered.  I went to the pool for about an hour.  That was the extent of it.  Otherwise, I just relaxed.  I read, I played on my iPad, I watched HGTV (I don't have cable television).  I arrived around noon yesterday and left there at 10:00 this morning. When I fly, I usually take a book and read.  Or a magazine.  Something to occupy my time.  Even when I'm flying with someone I know, I don't usually chat with them.  So, when a stranger is sitting next to me, I generally keep to myself and read.  I'm...

My backyard has always been BLAH.  No life, no nothing.  The grass that is back there is incredibly uncomfortable to walk on.  I have a deck, which we have put a porch swing.  We really haven't been able to enjoy backyard barbecues or anything like that. I have talked for the last couple of years, I have talked about wanting to replace the horrible grass and put in a patio.  Just some cement that we can enjoy having family barbecues and the like.  Problem was, there was a cost factor.  Well, when I bid my old life adieu, I had 350 hours in vacation time to be paid out.  Figuring I needed to save those dollars to support myself in the fashion I had become accustomed to, I socked it away to use at a later date.  Well, the lucky thing was that my retirement came into play before I even put a dent in the other.  So, I decided to treat myself and the old hubby to a fixer upper moment.  Here is the chronological transformation: G...

Tomorrow marks two months from my official retirement from my old life.  I've now been working at my new job for about six weeks.  Here are some things I've found in that time: I love watching people.  I always knew that, but, the airport is the most amazing place to watch people, to see how people act, etc.   I have no idea how to recognize celebrities.  I don't know how many times I've had someone say, "do you know who that was?" and not realize who they are.  The only one I actually recognized I didn't recognize their face, I recognized their name as they were boarding. I was spoiled for 32 years.   I had a job that was sitting down - hence my Chelsea dubbed, "big, big butt" was born.  I am now on my feet and running and walking and standing and sweating.  It's awesome!!  But, I'm pretty much exhausted all of the time. Now I'm working at a place where you eat lunch and you are all together.  So seeing how differently peopl...

I stopped at the bank on my way home from work today.  The lines were long - I am guessing that those people who get paid the 5th were all lined up there.  There is a Deseret Industries behind the bank.  Just as I pulled around the corner after finishing at the bank I noticed a Vespa type scooter came speeding out of the thrift store parking lot.  As I saw him cross in front of me, I noticed that he had a lamp sitting in front of him.  Not only that, he had a mirror and a framed picture of some type under his arm. He stopped at one of the busiest streets in our town, it's five lanes across, and it was the busiest time of the day.  Cars were coming one after the other.  I watched him dart across the first two lanes and sit in the middle lane.  I turned right from there and don't know if this freaky game of frogger was going to end well.  Hopefully, Mr. Dumb or Dumber made it all the way across and home.  I hope his redecorating goes w...

Don't keep going if you might get grossed out by my ugly toe. What it looked like when it happened.  Bloody ugly toe. Back in December, I was reaching in my pantry and reached behind a jar of peanut butter.  It was about four and a half feet up.  I knocked it over and it toppled down and landed on the big toe on my right foot.  I said some pretty colorful words and the longer I stood there, the more it started to just hurt - and it hurt bad. I started to just sob.  Ted and KayeLynn just kept trying to figure out how to deal with me. Once the tears stopped, I just started to shake and shake.  Ted told me I was in a form of shock, because the pain had been so intense.  I thought the toe was broken, but it wasn't.  It bled a little bit - over the next couple of days.  The day I did this was the day I had just had a pedicure - so I just left the polish on and left the toe alone. One month later Ugly blister! When I went four weeks l...