I wanna win the lottery

Yeah, I wanna win the lottery! That is what crosses my mind whenever my vacation ends and I have to go back to work. Of course I have to buy lottery tickets to even have a slight chance. I buy a quick pick lottery ticket maybe twice a year, if that. Oh well. I can still dream.

It is always hard for me to go back to work after I have been off. I had nine days off and they went by too fast. Mom told me the other day that I shouldn't think retirement is that great. Now that she is retired she doesn't know what to do with her time. You can only reorganize your drawers and move the living room furniture around so many times. Dad retired before Mom did and I remember her kind of envying resenting him because he had all this time to "play". Now she is considering trying to find a part time job somewhere.

Tomorrow is our town's "clean-up day". We can set out any big stuff or junk and the trash removal people will cart it away. Mom and Dad helped me take an old broken down recliner out to the curb along with an old unused junky kitchen chair and odds and ends. I should put my dishwasher out there too. It needs a new seal and I haven't used it in a very long time. The only thing it is used for is the extra counter space on top.

We have a new gal working in my department. She started training while I was on vacation. I met her last night for the first time. I remembered her from way back when. She and I have mutual friends. "D" is really down-to-earth and funny. Some of the other girls had sent me emails while I was on vacation telling me about her and they all said she was really nice but a bit on the "loud" side or "she sure likes to talk". Another gal said D likes to take a smoke break every hour and doesn't take notes when learning new things but that she seems to be a quick learner. D had remarried so I didn't recognize her name but when I saw her for the first time, we both pointed at each other and said "hey I know you!" She is a riot and I think she will be fun to work with.

The smoke break thing doesn't bother me. In January it won't matter anyway because the hospital will be completely smoke-free outside the premises and I have heard that people won't even be able to sit in their cars in the parking lot to smoke.

I think the smoking thing is a new Illinois law. I have also heard that people won't be able to smoke in their cars while driving down public streets. I don't know if this is true or not. My mother is a smoker and when I told her about this, she said no way. She said she will smoke in her car and her house. I know Dad wishes Mom would quit smoking. He will smoke a pipe or a cigar maybe once a year but he doesn't smoke cigarettes.