Flagstaff Dec 23-27

Short work week with Xmas being on Wednesday.  Being a temp, I don’t get vacation or holiday pay, so I lose 20% of my paycheck for not working Xmas.  I’m not all that thrilled, I’d rather work.  But the office boss lady let me know on Friday that I can work extra hours to make up the time I’m missing on Wednesday.  So, I come in at 7:30am (I’m always here by then anyway, might as well come inside rather than sit in my car).  And I’m working until 6:30pm.  10-hour shifts for 4 days will give me a complete paycheck.  Its weird being the only one in the office though.  I’m a temp and I’m unsupervised in a government office.  Coming from my security background, my inner auditor is screaming about all the things that could go wrong if I wasn’t a trustable, hardworking adult.  But deep down, I’m happy they trust me to be in the office alone and figure their conversation with Melissa at FIS probably has something to do with that.  I let them know this week that I can stay here until the middle of February at the latest.  They think they will only need me until the middle or end of January.  I’m very grateful they let me know that and that conversation is open between the office manager and myself.  My credit card spiked with my trip to Disney over Thanksgiving and there have been additional expenses since then.  It helps me budget and plan to know that middle of January might be my last paycheck.  My credit card is still close to $2,000 after making a couple of payments this month and I need to knuckle down to make sure I can get it paid off before I leave here.  I still have some emergency money left, but I’d rather not touch that any time soon.  If I can work the extra 2 weeks until the end of January, I can cover my expenses for Disneyland with Gina and maybe a chunk of my trip back to Florida.  2 more weeks of February would really be great, but I’m not planning on those as its unlikely I’ll still be here.

I’m learning about more places in Arizona I want to visit, and I really need to come up with a plan for January.  I booked a wigwam in Holbrook for Jan 11, as that is a Route 66 bucket list item and I need to do that before I leave.  Prescott, AZ looks amazing, but not necessarily in the cold.  I’m planning on doing a weekend there as well.  Up in Page, there is some beautiful hiking Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend.  There are a number of tours I can take up there and that might be good as hiking alone isn’t safe and it’s a bit of a drive, so handing that over to someone else is sometimes preferred.  But it’s a money thing and I’ll probably do it alone.  However, I’ve recently learned (2 minutes ago when I googled it) that Antelope Canyon requires a guide and I may not be able to do it alone.  I may need to do more research.  I still want to do a week or so at the Grand Canyon, and my assignment ends here, I’ll probably head in that direction.  After the holiday crowds, January might be a better option if the weather is good. 

The day before Christmas Dec 24, Diana invited me to go to the movies with her.  We went and saw the next Star Wars movie.  I had been pretty ambivalent about seeing it, I’ve seen almost all the recent Star Wars movies and they just don’t sit in my memory very well.  The movies are about 85% fighting or war battles and the story line gets suffocated in my brain.  I agree though, since I would see it eventually and Diana had already seen it and said it was really good.  I’m glad I went; it WAS really good and it is probably the last movie within this story line.  They tied up everything and I cried through at least half the movie.  I was fully immersed in the story.  Now, I need to download the other 2 movies with this story line, so I can see the story in its entirety with all the pieces put together.