What Makes a Place a Home?

30/365

While driving home the other day from the Grand Opening of the Library I realized that I was finally feeling settled in this new place. Not so new any more, as I have been here almost two years.

I'm having little trouble finding my way around. Though I still am confused when a Shopping Center is given as an address. Such as, Visit us at our location in Coliseum Center!! Or a dozen other such addresses. I have not a clue. But it does not annoy me any longer, I just go google it.

I'm beginning to find beauty in unfenced fields that seemingly go on forever, with copper fingers of light caressing the remnenets of corn stalks, as it fades away into the distant sunset. The light can play tricks, making the now frozen in a wintry snow shaped tundra, change from white to blue to rosy gold. Then black.

I find comfort in having a hairdresser who I like quite a bit. I settled into his chair the other morning and challenged him to cut off all my hair. He didn't, but gave me a terrific new hair style and carefully explained how I could do this at home!! I now have a Sally Field-esque flip. Joe is calling me Gidget.

I now have a dentist who has won over my heart by flattering me concerning the condition of my gums! And my wonderful dental work, "You've had it all done, haven't you?" he muttered while he examined my X-rays, the Dental Hygienist giving him a running commentary on all my mouth tragedies.

"Broken number seven, hit in mouth with a fast ball thrown by brother when she was 12." Etc. etc. etc.

Joe and I have our favorite haunt, a micro brewery, to escape and drink Raspberry Beer

I'm looking forward to Spring and the opening of the Southside Farmers Market. Until then I have to make due with the multitude of Organic Markets that seem to be on every corner! I am totally addicted to the vanilla-cherry granola at the 3 Rivers Co-op!

I am counting the days until Mains Nursery opens in April. My heart longs for the colors of flowers and plants. I am planning a trip to the Botanical Conservatory this week end so I can breath in the fragrant air and experience the lush atmosphere.

We are in the midst of a snow storm at the moment and I wait for my car to have the oil changed. When that is done I will slowly make my way to the downtown area to take photographs of the Mad Anthony Wayne statue for my Project 365 entry. I hope he is a snow cape and looking as mad as ever.

While traveling North from Kentucky after a weeks absence Joe turned to me and said, "I can't wait to get home."

"Me too." I thought to myself.

I just can not yet say it out loud.

UN-EARTHING THE RARE GOLD NUGGET

Today I thought I would head downtown and check out the brand spanking new Public Library. I did not realize that the Grand Opening was to be at 12 noon, exactly the time I arrived and huddled outside the closed doors awaiting the magic and escape from the cold!

We did not wait too long, Upon entering I realized there were hundreds of people pouring in from all entrances. The ground floor quickly filled to capacity and it was difficult to move around. The various rooms housing the different sections were not open yet. We had to wait on all the pontificating before we were allowed entrance.

I went upstairs to the balcony area and looked down for awhile until I grew antsy.

I headed towards the Twice Told Book section, where they sell the discarded library books from all the branches. Sweet Relief, it was open and operating with hundreds of people sipping cappucinos and browsing among the cast off tomes.

I finally was able to squeeze in and try to check out the travel books.

Did not find any, but I was eye to spine on an old beaten up copy housed in a corner section under a sign that read "Classics".

To Kill A Mockingbird.

One of the very few books that I have read over and over. Perhaps only one of two books I have ever read twice. I picked it up and noted it was in pretty bad shape. The binding is cracked and held together with scotch tape. The dust jacket is gone.

I flipped it open and saw this......


I could not believe my eyes! I took the book to the counter and handed over the two measly bucks they wanted for the book and walked to my car in a daze.

Sure it's old and very beat up. It is beyond reprehension that the damaged dust jacket had been cut and pasted on the inside pages!

It is a first edition To Kill A Mockingbird!

I wonder how many eyes have read the words on the 47 year old pages. I wonder how many hands carefully turned every page and became more and more involved with this classic story.

What a day. The best $2.00 I ever spent.

I MAKE A BETTER GIRLFRIEND THAN A WIFE

OR......THE GRASS IS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE

I was single for so long. Forever until Joe made an honest woman out of me. I was use to being single, doing what I wanted when I wanted and if I didn't like what I was doing I could just go home and then do what I wanted.

Yet, I thought something was lacking from my life. If you look around, most everyone is in couples! I wanted to be a couple! I wanted to be married, like most everyone I knew.

I did not understand the reality. That someone is always there! Once you are joined, there is no escaping. There is no packing it all up and leaving. There is no longer, "tomorrow is another day". It is today, over and over and over.

I am no Christmas present. Though I know it seems that I am wonderful and God's gift. I present myself the way I like to think of myself. It is not reality. The reality is ....well, let's just be glad Joe does not have a blog. I would be mortified.

Spending a total week together with no breaks (except when he got lost in the Airport trying to escape from me) was....eventful.

Take the ride home, back to IN from KY where we finished off our week vacation with a visit to our respective families. My niece was starring in a regional theater play (well, we like to think of her as being the star, because she definitely was to us!)and I had opted to see the performance on Saturday night.

Unbeknownest to me, there was a bit of weather brewing in the west and headed towards the Ohio Valley. I knew that freezing rain was expected after mid-night, but I also thought that it was to be followed by rain. Which to me, means it is going to warm up.

When Sunday morning dawned, it was pretty bad. Joe came and picked me up at my parents around 9am and off we went on our 4 and a half hour trip up north.

The world was covered in ice and snow. The expressways were a mess. Cars lined the ditches along side I-75. The wind was howling and the windshield wipers were scraping away the freezing rain as fast they could, yet it still piled up. Only one lane was open and everyone was flying! I was petrified and could not stop making little started noises, hitting the phantom brake pedal, and clutching the dash board for dear life.

"Do you think my driving is bad?" Joe asked sarcastically, "maybe you would like to take over."

To which I replied, "Please put more room between us and the car in front! Give yourself some reaction time."

About this time we began a slide that caused a string of expletives from both of us. This is a brand new car!! I mentally checked all the air bags....in the door and in the dash. I probably would survive a crash. Joe got the car under control and slowed down enough for all the cars behind us to come around in the lane that was still covered with ice and snow. "See See!!" he rebuked me.

I was white knuckled as we approached Cincinnati and the dreaded Death Hill.

"Please pull over and lets wait it out" I began to plea.

He did not respond.

"Please. I do not want to go down the Hill."

Police cars and wreckers were everywhere. Cars were disabled on the side of the road, and in the shoulder on the left, unfortunately up next to concrete abutments to separate the North and South traffic.

"Please I am not joking, pull over."

"I can't get to an exit!! Do you not see the icy slush???!!!"

I began to cry. I don't know where it came from, I was so scared about going down that damn hill. If you have ever been traveling in that area, you know the hill I am talking about. It was at one time so steep that trucks could not make it up heading South. The entire area was re-constructed in the 1990's. It is still steep and scary.
Did I mention it curves?

"Pull over and let me out!!!"

"I will!! Don't think I won't"

I suddenly had this wonderful rush come over me. If he lets me out I will kill him. If he deposits me on the side of an Interstate in the midst of a horrific snow/sleet storm, I will divorce him then I will kill him. My next thought was this.......

"I will cut my hair!! Yes, I will cut all my hair off because I love it very short."

Just at the moment of hair liberation we began the descend down the Hill to the Ohio River. I closed my eyes and began to pray.

We made it!!!

Only to come up next to a snow plow that was throwing a wall of blinding snow at us the moment we came behind it!

"We're dead." Joe stated as he began to break and then the string of expletives again.

We somehow made it around the truck.

After clearing the Cincinnati area, the weather was less severe. Things were not as intense and the roads were clearer. We were able to relax. Relax after over two hours of skidding and cussing.

Joe looks over at me and laughs, "Do you think I would really put you out? I couldn't bear to see you standing on the side of the road with you skimpy little coat on."

No...he would have been dead!

PEOPLE PLEASING BUSINESS

Now if you are like me and spending your hard earned money someplace, someplace that could easily be another place, there is a certain amount of customer service that I feel entitled to.

For instance, about two weeks ago I was in a mega-store hoping to find another bag of discounted nuts (oh they were great! About five pounds of walnuts, pecans, almonds etc. etc. still in the shells for close to nothing! I bought one bag where there were two and I returned hoping the second bag would be there...it was not)and picked up a donut and a loaf of bread instead.

It was early, maybe 730AM and I was the only person in the "check yourself-out" lane when I discovered I had left my reading glasses in the car. I can not read a thing anymore unless it is the size of the BIG LETTER E on the eye chart. So I turn to girl who is manning the station and wave her over and tell her that I can not read the screen. She points to a chart above the screen and says "The letters are bigger here" and I look and say, "I really can't read it."

She pounded out my order like she was whipping a carpet on the clothes line and stomped off. I felt terrible. I should have gone to the line where the clerk rang you up, I knew that, but when I started the check yourself out with the bread I did not realize my glasses were MIA.

On the way past her station I said, "Thank you very much for your help".

And the Bitch totally ignored me. Actually raised her chin and looked away. Not only did I feel bad for asking her to do her job, now I was feeling angry with her snub. I let it go, thinking that is she is a representation of the attitude the check out clerks have in this store, I will not go back.

Let's go to Cancun.

Joe and I usually eat in the buffet/free style restaurant area for people who do not want to dress up and read menu's at the All-inclusive resorts. On our second night there we were escorted to an area where we promptly began ordering Apple-tini's. Which we drank all through out the meal and then lingered at the table afterwards in deep conversation that can only be brought on by several Apple-tini's.

Our waiter was great, bring us the nectar of the God's at the perfect intervals.

The next morning we are standing and waiting to be seated for breakfast, the waiter from the night before breezes by, catches sight of us, and motions us into his station where he takes care of us and never lets our Mimosa's run dry.

That evening, we sought him out...and so on and so on.

The last evening we where there we gave him a nice big fat tip.

Now we are on the Beach and the beach-bar maid finds us. She is the most fabulous bar/beach maid I have ever encountered. She went all over the beach gathering drink orders, never writing a thing down, yet always arrived with the correct drink. At the end of the day she gathered up all the plastic glasses and constructed a tower ten feel high and balanced them back to the pool bar.

She was fantastic. She did not even bother to ask us anymore. Anytime she came past our beach chairs, she had a beer and a Pina Colada!

I tipped her everyday!!!

Gosh, it sounds like I did nothing but guzzle alcohol all week. Hmmmmmmm.....I think I did!

Anyway, I love being treated like I am appreciated for the dollars I am giving away.

Somepeole belong in the People Pleasing business and some do not!

THE DARK UNDERBELLY OF A VACATION

Everyone knows that you go, you get on a plane, you land, you find some sort of transport, you arrive, you unpack, you go to the beach, you order a Pina Colada, you eat till you can't anymore, you order yet another Pina Colada, somewhere you switch to a drink called a Maui, then you wake up the next morning with a slight headache and wondering where the hell you are.

Every one knows about that.

What no one writes about, no one dares to expose the not so pleasant aspect of travel and vacation. And God help me, if anyone I know in every day life (such as family etc) ..... I'm really making all this up just for fun!

Yea, that's it, I'm making all this up and writing for fun.

For fun, because I can't write another "What I did on My Vaca".

We left the airport of origin an hour late. We were flying into Dallas. All reports left us concerned because bad weather was sweeping through the mid-west like a howling bitch. Ice was covering the Dallas airport and there fore flights going in were going in slow.

We hoped we could make our connection with the assumption that if flights going in were delayed, so must the flights going out. Before arriving, the word was given via the intercom regarding all out going flights. I heard ours was still 10:30am. We were landing at 10am. into the "A" terminal, we needed to be at the "C".

We had minimal carry on luggage, so we huffed it to the Sky Link and boarded thinking we had plenty of time to make it. We looked around us and noted the many concerned faces also calculating the time it would take to make the gate.

Naturally, it took forever to arrive at the C terminal. We jumped off the Sky Link at 10:30 and headed towards the escalator and began two stepping down the moving stairs and hit the ground running! Rounding the corner we saw that our gate - Gate 20 - was very vacant and I began to feel that sense of disappointment.

A clerk slouched against the counter nonchalantly waving an International Destination form and looking amused at our plight. I looked above her head and saw our flight number....and the "delayed" message. "You all have plenty of time to fill these out," she pointed towards a bar directly across from us...."over there. You can keep an eye on us from there".

Oh Happiness! We had not missed the plane.

But wait! When is the plane leaving?

At One O'clock in the afternoon. Yes, indeed plenty of time to spend in the bar. Joe and I bellied up and ordered a brew to calm us down. A young man hopped into the bar stool next to Joe and began telling the bar tender his woes. His plane for Cancun was delayed! We began to chat and I asked, "Where are you from?"

(Now Joe and I had traveled to another town to catch a flight. Joe did not want to go to Chicago, because he hated the traffic there, no matter if it is day or night, week-end or not...traffic is scary. So we went east and found an Airport halfway between FW and Lexington, Dayton.)

"Fort Wayne" he answers.

Isn't it a small world?

Joe decided he would call our Airline and complain about the long wait to board and how it was eating into our vacation. They informed Joe that the plane which had yet to arrive at Gate 20 had mechanical problems they were working on and the departure time may not be 1pm. Could be later. Could be not at all.

Joe got us on another flight, this one leaving at 1:30 at Gate C-29.

We waste another hour or so before we are sitting outside C-29 waiting to board. Unfortunately I hear them boarding Gate-20! They fixed the plane! Now we were going to be leaving even later than necessary.

But wait, they won't even let us on the plane at Gate-29. I was not privy to the conversation between Joe and the supervisor of the ground Clerks. In no uncertain terms we would not be allowed on the gate-29 plane because we did not have our luggage with us. Our luggage can not arrive before us. Somehow this is one of those new 911 laws. No amount of arguing or pleading would make her change her mind.

"We are screwed." Joe say's, "lets just go back to Dayton."

WHAT!!! I feel tears of frustration and disappointment well up in my eyes as I follow behind him, not knowing where he is going but where else do I have to go.

Just at that moment they began to page us, by name, for the final boarding for the plane sitting in gate-20.

I really began running fast. For about 100 yards. "Run Joe Run, tell them to hold that plane!!"

We got on, got seated, got buckled, the engines were humming and the glow of success was upon us! "We're going to Mexico!!"

We waited and waited until we were finally told the plane had not cleared the inspection and would not be flying anytime today.

Off we went and all surround the counter like vultures waiting for the animal to keel over. The ground clerks pounded away on their keyboards trying to issue new boarding passes. Joe and I were the second in line to receive our new boarding passes.

When asked for his name, Joe respondes, "Vincent Fox". The clerk began to type the name in furiously and not realizing the joke Joe was trying to make. "That's the Mexican ex-president" Joe stated to the not happy and about to heave us out of the airport for .... oh I can think of a zillion reasons..."He's joking" I butt in , and tell the guy our real names.

My husband is very annoyed with me for not thinking his joke is funny and leaves me sitting at Gate-20 waiting for the new plane to be delivered.

I wait and wait and wait. Hubs never comes back. It's an half hour now. Once again over the terminal intercom we are directed to yet another gate. Only know its a Gate in the D terminal.

I begin to look every where for Joe. In all the bars, standing outside the bathrooms, wandering up and down the very long "C" terminal.

Finally I give up, I figure he has either gone back to Dayton or he has gone onto the D terminal.

I get on the Sky Link and realize Have my cell phone (it is turning into a very long day) and I call him. He answers. I can not hear him over the roar of the Sky Link.

"Gate D-18" I keep repeating into the phone until I loose the connection.

I rush to gate 18 thinking of how I can hold the plane until he arrives!

We are all lined up. I'm frantically looking for Joe.

"Sorry folks,we apologize. The plane waiting for you at Gate-4"

Where the hell is gate 4. Wouldn't you know it, in another section of the terminal. Another trip on Sky Link.

I'm frantic. Where is Joe. I'm calling and calling. He is not answering. He is probably on the Sky Link and can not hear it ringing. I stand on the platform and a miracle!! There he is on the arriving train.

"Don't get off! We have to go to the next terminal!" All of us Cancun deprived travelers jump and squeeze on the train and off we go.

Thank God, there is a Plane and we do board and we do get an aisle seat.

And we do arrive in Cancun, seven hours later than we were scheduled.

And our new friend from FW is also on the plane, he made it too!

And to make this even better.....our luggage arrived too!

(this is the longest entry I think I have ever written and it is unedited....yikes!)

The winter days they last forever

I'm back. Cancun looked like the above photo....kind of looks like a post card doesn't it?

Cancun no longer looks like the picture below.....



I'm so glad Joe and I got a chance to go check it out for ourselves.

Notice when we went this time it was not Hurricane season!

I HAVE AN IDEA.......

Once again, Sunday Scribblings!

I am going out of town and will return in about a week....so I have an idea!!

Here are a bunch of blogs that I have run across that are great and deserving of a visit.

A Blog Jog.....with my compliments!

Austin to Africa, Brazil to the Bay. She is living her dream. Terrific writer and very unusual surrounding.


Just found this guy and he can write! Runs with Scissors. (one of my favorite things to do!!)

Next on my list is Meno's Blog another journal I just found and absolutely adore!

Here is a man in the form of an E-Dog! Very funny and entertaining.

Continuing with the men...here is the Stupid Sheet Guy...just check him out! Thoughtful and funny.

Sorting the Pieces is a beautiful journal written by a beautiful, insightful and eloquent lady, Cynthia.

Last but by far not the entire list I wanted to put up (I have to get cracking, that plane leaves tomorrow sometime and Joe is chomping at the bit to get on the road...I kid you not!)is a journal that I must read written by two girls with nothing better to do than travel around the world! Even though, right now they are at home visiting with family and friends, doing weddings and holidays etc. etc. before taking off for more wild adventures and stories! Tripping on Words. Fantastic read.

Till then......

2017

I just wrote a very personal post and did not hit the publish button. I have edited it and reread it. I asked myself if I felt better after writing it, and in some ways I do, in some ways it is just an outlet for my frustrations about a certain situation that will not change as long as I do not change.

At various times I have published when I am in the heat of the moment, the center of the vortex, riding high on raw emotion. And a time or two, my butt has born the brunt of those posts.

Recently, while blog surfing, I read an interesting question. It went something like this,".........if what you are publishing on your blogs is not interesting now, why should it be interesting in 2017?"

And I thought, this is a blog for me! Of course when I look back 10 years from now it will be very interesting to me. It is a blog for me!! For God's sake.

AOL did not allow for a draft key. I love it. It gives me time to think, "Okay that post is for me....do I really want to send it out there into the Blogosphere for the entire world? Or my family, Joe's family? Hell, no. I applaud the draft button.

Getting back to the 2017 statement. I have written diaries and journals since I was in grammar school. Sometime in the late 1970's I burned them all, except one.

That one is from my early high school days and I love it.


The pages are old and the pictures I cut out from magazines and the newspapers are faded and the scotch tape is brittle. The hand writing is foreign, is that really me? The things I deemed important enough to write about are wonderful journeys back to the young person I once was.

I like her a lot. And yes, she is interesting 40 years later!

August 1968.

"Albert came up to me before we danced to ask me to dance. I was a little afraid because I really don't know how to dance. Anyway, after a little while Kev says, "Here comes Albert" and I said "Where is he?" and Kev says "Right beside you!" And Albert said "Come on Mary, teach me how to dance." Ha! We stepped on each others feet all through the slow dance. He had had a lot to drink. He told me that he and Father Sullivan had split a bottle of champagne between them!"

Gotta love those Italian-Irish weddings!

SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND

I really did have an excellent Christmas. Joe and I received a little bitty HP Photosmart digital camera from his place of employment for a gift. I totally forgot all about it! Until today. It is the perfect spy camera. It fits snugly in your pocket. A perfect fit in your purse. Always at the ready!

My brother in law gave me an awesome Christmas gift. Three envelopes crammed full of CD's from the New Dimension series! 15 hours of intellectual entertainment to educate and amuse while I drive up and down those old lonesome highways.

Yesterday I stumbled on Martin Prechtel. What a voice. So melodious and even. His stories intoxicated me not only with content, but with cadence and touching softness. He had written a book and I made a bee-line for my favorite book-spot, Hyde Brothers.

It all came together.



Camera, bookstore and motivation.



I stumbled into the religious, yoga, spiritual section thinking I might find the book there. No...it was not there.

It was tucked away in another section with an old friend, Carlos Castaneda! How long has it been? At least 30 years and you have not changed a bit! Taking a quick look inside the cover assured me that yes indeed, it was his 1972 self. I grabbed them for nostalgic reasons.....

After filling my arms with spirituality, I made a quick trip to my beloved Travel section in the belly basement of the store. I gingerly made my way down the stairs that squeak and moan beneath your feet gliding my free arm against the wall least I stumble and crack open my skull. I could hear those books calling my name and I was answering as fast as I could.

I love this store. Sometimes I feel as if I am having a love affair with the Hyde Brothers. I have been in and out of used Bookstores my entire life. I have sneezed my fair share of the dust of ages. The Hyde Brothers are very special. They have
never disappointed me. Not once. I always find what I am looking for. Including the Martin Prechtel book, a 1st edition when it was published under another name.

This is my addiction. I know it is a sickness when I consider ways to sneak my books into the house without drawing attention to the bulging book shelves.

It could be worse....

Couldn't it?

MANIC MONDAY

It was one of those great hair days! The moment the rollers were out and I had shaken my head to get a look at the effect I knew....My God!! A Good Hair Day!

That was until I began the work day by opening the front door at 630am to dash to the car. It was snowing. And the wind was blowing fiercely. So much for my hair. It was attacked and destroyed in moments, whipped into a frenzy and full of so much static that it was standing straight up trying to touch the ceiling of the car.

Damn.

When I arrived at work and hiked the equivalent of half a football field to get in the side door, it was all over.

There was a gathering of the women in the front office removing the coats and gloves, telling the horror stories of the trip in, fighting traffic and slick spots and slow downs.

Every one's hair was a mess.

"If I ruled the world I would start a new trend. All women would shave their heads and to hell with hair!"

There was much agreement. "I would wrap my head in colorful scarves and love it!"

"I would collect wigs like shoes. Today I'll be blond, tomorrow a red head. Next Thursday, I'll have long hair, then on Friday I'll have curly pink hair."

I love it!!

The thought of not having to spend incredible amounts of time on my head to only have the North Wind laugh at me is intoxicating.

To open my closet and choose a wig. Ahhhhh....that would be heaven!

WONDERFUL WONDERFUL SUNDAY

I love Sundays.

I am able to sleep in. Much later than I can on Saturday morning because my body's time clock has yet to realize it is the week-end. It knows by Sunday morning.

I love the Sunday paper and the assortment of sections that prove so entertaining and full of interesing articles I enjoy. The book section, the travel section, the garden section.

I find it difficult to relax and read the paper on...say a ... Tuesday, so Sunday is perfect to catch up on all the world actvities and local issues that the radio is only able provide sound bites.

I use to go to Church services while living in the Lexington area. I truly miss that and have not found a substitute place of worship up here. I loved the mega church atmosphere, the ability to just submerge and lose yourself among the other 5,000 worshipers. I am funny that way I suppose. God knows I'm there, that's all that matters.

I have no agenda, no list of things to accomplish as I do on Saturday. I am able to just read a book, surf the Internet, tidy up the house at my leisure, and watch some sports. On that note, thank God it is Basketball season! I am not much of a Football fan, other than loving to go to games during my time at High School and College because there was socializing and drinking involved. Other wise, it is just a bunch of over sized men in tight fitting pants trying to whack the blazes out of each other. I much prefer a beautifully executed hook shot by a college athlete. And I love seeing Ricky Pitino stamp his foot on the sideline, or Billy Donovan morphing into a force to be reckoned with.

I'll write some e-mails, send some snail mail and call my Mom on the phone.

I am addicted to snail mail, maybe since I had my first pen-pal so many years ago. It is a thrill I have never gotten over, opening the mail box and pulling out a hand addressed envelope! To this day, I love it. I send out cards to many people on a weekly basis....kind of like my idea of paying it forward.

This day will find me and my Man going to the movies, maybe. Or making chili. What ever it is, I will be spending time with him.

Speaking of which....time to get off the computer!!

KISSING

This weeks Sunday Scribbling is KISSING.....

My first kiss pops into my head, but the story is short and although sweet, it is a little pathetic. I like Joe's first kiss story better. He was kissing (age 12) L. and decided to open his eyes and see how she was enjoying it only to find she had her eyes open (also) and was looking over his shoulder, more than likely checking out her nails. (This story is probably funny to me because Joe and I grew up in the same small town, knew all the same people as kids, lived practically on the same damn street, rode the same school bus to (separate)schools....so I can just see L. at age 11, doing just that...)

I digress.

The Smart Aleck Number Two is pretty ambitious. I discovered this almost immediately upon entering into the Fold at my New Place of Business working at the Old Company. SA#2 is not malicious in his self promotion, but anyone who has ever worked with someone who wants on the fast track knows how it goes.

The Boss walks into the closet, charading as an office room, and after several moments SA#2 will say something like, "I signed up 157 people on the program today." Always making SA#1 and me look bad.

I have learned how to keep a straight face after much practice.

Most recent display of flagrant self promotion occurred during the holidays when immediate boss was on vacation and our weekly meeting was held with Big Boss man. We were sitting in the conference room going over our weekly reports when SA#2 pushes a dossier towards the Man and says something like, "I'm not certain what you were looking for so here is everything I have accomplished in the past three months."

Like I said, I am good at keeping a straight face anymore. He is impressive.

SA#1 found a new job and it took over three months to find a suitable replacement. Finally, she began this week.

Much to my pleasure and the chagrin of SA#2, he is training her.

Training her means you have a companion traveling with you ALL THE TIME!!!

She did hop in the car with me one day this week. It was okay, she is a nice kid and I was concerned that I was not going to like her and that was put to rest. I was praying she was not going to become SA#3.

SA#2 whispers to me across our office ( which is 10 feet by five feet with four of us in there, so whispering to each other is easy), "I e-mailed D. about her schedule. He says that we are to alternate."

Okay, that means she goes with me. Damn.

Then D. walks into the room and says to SA#2, "'The New Girl' rides with you today."

I could not help but snort trying to keep from laughing out loud!!

Ass Kissing can really get you in deep!!

GOT MY BACK

Dear Diary,

Today it rained.

Which was fitting, as I almost got blown up this morning! I was the first car stopped in my lane at a Rail Road crossing. A white van was next to me. A quick glance over to my left showed a young man talking on his cell phone. A look in my rear view mirror revealed a man standing outside his large commercial truck, acting a little alarmed, trying to open the hood over his smoking engine. "Holy crap" I thought. He managed to get it unlatched. As soon as the cool outside air hit that engine the smoke began to bellow. The man quickly closed the hood and ran away from the vehicle. Immediately I and the van next to me were engulfed in smelly gray choking smoke! The train was taking its sweet time moving on down the line. I was able to back up...closer to the smoking truck (you Idiot!)....and swing into a tiny parking lot, trapped by the road next to me and the train tracks behind me. I was still in the blast zone, should there be one. Naturally I was facing the truck, I did not want to miss Death coming for me.

I was so calm calling 911. "Please state the nature of your emergency."

"There is a truck on fire in front of the Train Crossing"

"The address"

I was blank. Totally blank.

"Is it Lincoln Highway and Hartzell?"

"YES!" (how did they know? Oh yes, the fire station is over my shoulder and the kid next to me is on the cellphone!)

Through the smoke and my front row seat I witnessed another truck behind the first one. The driver jumped out and came running with a fire extinguisher. They tossed back the hood again and the fire was raging!! Flames leaped towards the sky.

Just at the moment the train had cleared the crossing and the arms went up. I was able to escape.

But just barely.

I gunned it and left, with the sound of the fire engine siren at my back.

DESTINATION

“Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be...Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before.” Erich Fromm quotes (German born American social Philosopher and Psychoanalyst, 1900-1980)


This weeks prompt for Sunday Scribblings is very interesting and as always, very thought provoking. Especially coming on the cusp (and as I write this on the heels) of a new year.

It has been expressed in many ways by a multitude of inspired writers that it is the journey and not the destination. I believe this with all my heart as I have the reality of this truism thrust towards me in all aspects of my life.

2006 was a journey towards increased self-awareness and the growing itch of dissatisfaction. I recently read WEST WITH THE NIGHT written by a most remarkable woman, Beryl Markham (probably the best book I have read in years). As I read I was struck full force as if she had written these words over 60 years ago for me alone to see.

"A life has to move or it stagnates. Even this life, I think. Every tomorrow ought not to resemble every yesterday."

So many of my days are a total repeat of the day before. I find myself feeling that I am squandering away the precious time I have been given for my journey.

I think that just giving a name to my discontent is enough to kick start the journey again.

After all....we all know where the journey ends. The final destination.