American Idol reviewed

Alright people, here is my review of the Neil songs on 'American Idol.'

Even if you didn't see it, hopefully you'll still find it funny.

Now to be fair, each candidate sang WAY better than what I could - especially given that they were doing it on national TV and in front of a live audience. AND Neil Diamond is uber cheesy...thus his extreme appeal. I don't know how these candidates could've rocked it. He's so unique that I think this would be a really hard task.

But that's why I'm not on 'American Idol' - well that and I'm too old, not trendy, and don't sing well enough. But mostly it's because I'd be afraid I'd have to make a Neil song my own.

Now on with the review!

Dread boy (whatever, I'm sure he has a name, but I don't know it): he wussed down "Forever in Blue Jeans." Hello! MONEY TALKS...but it don't dance and sing, and it don't walk!! Now, to be fair, perhaps his dreads weighed down his excitement level. They do look heavy. Your second song was better. If you went to college with me and sang that in a talent show, I would've wanted to kiss you.

Rocker guy with asymmetrical hair cut: I don't even know which songs he was singing. Hey man, sing the crap I know! Obviously, he thinks I was tuning in to see him versus hearing the songs I know. Hello! Boy was he wrong. But he did sound the best out of the contestants. He sounded pretty good - and he committed to singing it. Plus, he had "AC" on his guitar...which I can only assume was his way of saying that he appreciates me personally. Thanks Rocker Guy.

Little blondie fantastic: wow...is she cute or what? I want look just like her when I grow up... I especially want to have hair like her. But after her first number, I was thinking that maybe maybe modeling is her thing. But her second song was WAY better... her voice sounds kind of like Carly Simon. She does get lots of points for being the only one to wear sparkly pants.

Young small boy: Okay, you can sing. AND you are cheesy. But Neil is MORE than just good singing and cheesy. I can't believe you had the balls to sing 'Sweet Caroline' and 'America.' No really, you're so young, that I'm surprised they've dropped. I'll be honest, you kinda' sounded like Dan Fogelberg on the cheese factor versus COOL cheesy of Neil. But the good news is that you're what, 7 and a half years old? You have a long life in front of you. I'm sure I'll hear your songs while in elevators and dentists offices for decades to come.

Saucy black girl: you sort of sounded like Dione Warwick during 'Hello Again' but it was nice. You've got a great voice. Perhaps you pulled it off because you weren't trying to sound like Neil. But it was good...really! But how come you didn't wear shoes during either performance? And also? Your hair is so cute all afro style! As your newest friend, I think that I should help you know that you should always wear it that way.

Look, I know one person who reads this is going to think that I was mean. But really, I'm not trying to be catty - just funny.

One sparkly shirt away from destiny...

Tonight is apparently American Idol's Neil Diamond night.

I have to say - other than one bloopers type show at the beginning of the season, I have not caught an episode of American Idol.

But on the way to work when I heard that Neil was going to make an appearance, I HAD to tune in.

Oh Neil... 'Hello Again'!!!!

I hope the new kids (who weren't even alive during any of his hits I'm sure) don't MUCK it up. Because you shouldn't mess with a man in a sparkly shirt...I'm pretty sure he can F*CK you up if he wants.

Notice...

Great. The writer's strike is over. Yay.

I've been looking forward to 'The Office' and 'Grey's Anatomy' for MONTHS.

'The Office' is so very funny. I love it. Seriously, if you don't watch it, I don't know why. As in there is no excuse great enough. Last week I laughed so hard that when I was done watching it, I was smiling for the rest of the night!

'Grey's Anatomy' on the other hand...well... See, I just watched the episode from this past week. Sure, it seems like it would be good. I mean, if you watched the previews, you probably knew that a guy was mauled by a bear and his intestines spilled out of his body. That always makes for good stuff. But the first part of the show (the footage before they flashed the title) showed George in his new apartment. And there were roaches. EVERYWHERE.

The rest of the episode was good. But I swear, each time I saw George all I could think of were the roaches...and how he literally smashed one right in front of my eyes at the beginning.

Here's the thing, GA writers. You had MONTHS to come up with something good. And the best you had was roaches at the beginning? I HATE roaches! Mostly because when I was a kid, my older sister told me that roaches climb up your legs and then try to eat your eyebrows. I can think of nothing scarier than roaches dangling from my eyebrows...their little legs hitting my eyelashes. I am SO afraid of these things...it's a wonder I'm not screeching while perched precariously on my couch just having seen them on TV. It's bad enough that every time the tip of my ponytail brushes against my neck I cringe and get the eebie jeebies.

GA writers - I'm taking a page from Steven Colbert's book. You are officially on notice.

No more roaches on your show or I will tell your mom on you.

What the...

There are groups that get together in Denver - organized solely by one common denominator... they're officially called "Meetups"). Anyway, through the Great Dane Rescue, I've gotten involved with the Denver Great Dane Meetup group.

Last night there was a cook-out at a member's place. He has a little blue Great Dane puppy, named Titus. I wanted to steal him.

Anyway, we were talking about pictures, danes, and how I guess our Meetup organizer decided to advertise about the group on craigslist. Along with the verbiage about the group, she posted several pictures from the Meetup profiles. We looked at the ad, and I saw this picture.We made a LOT of jokes last night about it. Joy (the organizer) put it up on the ad because she thought it was funny.

It makes me feel so uncomfortable.

Something in the air...

The women at my work are a smelly bunch.

Our receptionist smells like "old lady" - it's like a mixture of formaldehyde and "White Shoulders." The other receptionist/assistant/file clerk/professional-National-Inquirer-reader smells like whatever scent is newest from Bath & Body Works - she's always lathering it on and mixing scents seems to be what she likes to do. Walking by her desk, I get a headache. One of the other sales people smells like cigarettes and sunflower seeds, and the only other female who works in the office (besides me) seems to smell of baby barf from time to time. The girl that helps out in the warehouse? She smells like dirty pennies.

What?!? I'm just saying.

And in case you're wondering...I, of course, always smell spring time fresh.

I love my UNIBROW! :)

Do you remember this commercial?


It is from 2006 and then again in 2007 - during Christmas time. It advertises a thing called a Garmin...but because close to the end, there is a lady with a unibrow on it, I have always called it the unibrow. Doesn't make sense? Yeah, welcome to what it's like in my head. :)

Anyway, the Garmin is a navigational tool that can direct you to exactly where you want to be. It was a gift at Christmas 2006 from my dad who wanted to make sure that his girls were safe. My little sister opted for a vacuum instead. So my older sister (who was not a huge fan of it at first) and I got one. I was so excited!

Unfortunately, mine had some sort of critical error where it would not load maps or provide any signal strength. One out of 13 times (umm...yeah, that's an accurate stat) it would work though...and that would always keep me coming back again in the hopes that it was finally working! Co-dependent, what? I was so bummed (and yes, it was like PRISON!) I learned that I could not depend on my unibrow. In the spring, I decided it would be easier to print off directions on the internet (I mean, really how archaic!) instead of hoping that it would work when I was driving. So I threw it in my glove compartment and forgot about it for six months. In the meantime, the older sister was using it like crazy. She moved to a new town and didn't have to worry about getting lost...because her unibrow works like a gem! I admit. I was jealous; after all, she was living my unibrow dream!

Anyway, I realized that by me moving into Denver proper and having no idea where the Sam Hill I am might be a problem. I finally got some tech support to work it out in December. It finally worked!

But because of my move, I had misplaced the power cord and the car charger. I threw it in the glove compartment again. :(

Two weekends ago I found the car charger. It was in a box labeled "Mary Kay" and really? Why did I not think to look there?!? Hello! Mary Kay could totally help with a unibrow. Sheesh.

Long story short (too late - I know) I've been using it since. Even for places that I'm pretty sure I do know where it is. It's fantastic! :)

It's like PRISON!

So I've started saying, "It's like PRISON!" at work...

This started a couple of months ago when I was talking about the DMV. They're not great in any state - I'm assuming. But they're especially horrible in Denver. Really. These witches think that just because you HAVE to do business (i.e. license your vehicles, show proof of insurance, etc.) with them they can treat you like poop. I made the statement that it was like prison to have to deal with them (I still stand by my comment, by the way. I mean, the similarities are disarming!).

At any rate, I've been saying it mainly because it reminds me that nothing is THAT bad. So when I start complaining about someone or something that I don't like, I have been following it up with "It's like PRISON!" or something similar just to remind myself that it really is not a big deal. Plus, it's funny to those who sit around me.

So today we had a Lunch N' Learn at work. It's where someone brings in lunch and we learn about something. Oooh, snazzy title! :) I know... you didn't see it coming. Anyway, we had this lunch and they brought in 87 feet of Subway sandwiches. Okay, really it was like 12...but there were only 9 of us. And none of us are pregnant, bulimic, or even trying to put on weight. But alas, I digress.

In my effort to slim down my womanly figure, I opted for mustard as my only condiment. I looked around for the knives and couldn't find any...so to be funny, I said, "Geez! This place doesn't even have knives. It's like PRISON!" and walked out of the room to get one from the lunchroom. As I was walking away, I heard our presenter (someone from another company) ask, "Wow. I never would've thought she had done time!"

(sigh)

What's up with the woot?

Seriously, help me out - I'm a dorky white girl...

What the heck is up with woot (or w00t)?

No really.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!?!?

More than half full...

Tonight I had pizza and bread sticks for dinner from a cute little Italian place around the corner.

I ate too much.

And I smell like garlic.

But hey - I have leftovers for the next couple of days.

The end.

Happy birthday, Lisa!!! :)

Today is Lisa D's birthday.

I love you, Lisa.

Thanks for all of your support and advice. It has meant the world to me. I love that crazy kid that I knew in high school, but I also love the wonderful woman you are now.

And for the record, you can send Jalyn to me anytime you need a break. We'll have red-headed fun. Just remember to poke holes in the box.

Love,
me :)

P.S. Ha ha...your initials are Lucifer Devil Satan Wonderouskingofthedarkside. If you could marry a guy who's last name starts with a B it'd be perfect...then you'd be Lucifer Devil Satan Beelzebub. Because I'd assume you'd drop the W. I mean, let's be practical here.

Better days

Alright people.

I'm back.

I stayed late on Thursday night and Friday night just to finish up voicemails, etc. on the crappy ass week. Then I came home and let the party time begin! For starters on Friday night I watched not one, but TWO Law and Order episodes before falling asleep. That's right!

Yesterday actually was fun though. I woke up at 7 am and re-arranged significant aspects of my place. I cleaned, I did laundry, and I organized...I've still got a ways to go as I don't like how it looks right now, but I'm getting there. There was a sale at one of my favorite stores, so I shopped and had a great time. I also stopped by the "Life Is Good" store and bought a t-shirt that I've been wanting for a while but haven't seen it in my size. Not even online (it is discontinued in the women's line online)! Anyway, it's a brown shirt and has this on it:


Isn't it so cute? :) When I saw it the first time I just wanted to pick it up and cuddle it saying, "Who's the cutest shirt in this store? You are! Yes you are!"

So then as I was leaving BelMar, a friend texted me and said that they were meeting for a drink in BelMar. Yay! :) A chicken sandwich and two pints of Blue Moon later and I was feeling pretty good about life.

Anyway, I've really tried to do things this weekend to completely de-stress so that my "button" is smaller this next week.

Here's to better days!

Put a fork in me...

UGH!

So I went to work today determined to make things work.

Unfortunately, my plan did not work.

I found out that another one of my large orders (over $100K) was fouled up at the factory level and I couldn't do a thing about it. I actually was griped at by people at the factory - as if it was my fault that the customer was mad. They're mad because we SWORE to them that we would have the valves shipped out on or before the 15th. In case you haven't checked the calendar lately, it's now the 17th. And surprise, surprise! The customer isn't thrilled that they won't ship out until next week.

Then we had a meeting where we were told that our bonus structure was changing, our base salary was changing, and oh-by the way, we're not likely to get anything over a 2.5% raise each year. Oh and also? You're not going to move up in the company any time soon. Now go out there and get some more orders!

I got back to my desk and found that Mr. 1953 had emailed almost everyone at the factory, myself, my boss, my boss' boss, my boss' boss' boss, and also the outside sales rep's boss. He completely threw me under the bus indicating that I was not doing anything to help him, that I wasn't returning his phone calls, and asked if I was going to get back to him "anytime before [he] retires in 4 years." Cool. Nevermind that I sent the information that he wanted yesterday morning. Oh, and when I talked to him yesterday and mentioned the information that he wanted, he didn't mention that he didn't receive the email. The thing that sucks is that I can't even defend myself at this point because he's still the freakin' customer. So I went into my boss' office and started to calmly tell him that what he was about to read in an email was completely false. I was so mad that I started crying AGAIN! He made some sort of comment (which I now do not recall the specific words) about how I was being a girl. He's the guy that doesn't stand up for anything or anyone. I mean, why make waves when you can just placate people? So he proceeded to call the Regional Product Manager and asked him to handle this situation for me, since it appeared to be too much. Fantastic. Right on the heels of me realizing that someone else in our office will be promoted much quicker than me and that any promotions or raises we'll have are completely subjective. It's not that I couldn't handle it (I know, all evidence to the contrary) but it's that I was so mad! I have been staying late and have ended up slowing my response time to other significant customers because I have been so concerned about his situation. And to have him blatantly lie about what I have been doing was so unbelievably sucky!

I ended up sending an email to everyone that was cc'd on Mr. 1953's email to me and explained that I had just talked to him and that I confirmed that he had received the quote via phone. I then literally typed, "I did not discuss the gross inaccuracies from his email because I realize it will not help resolve his problems with the valves."

I then checked my personal email only to see that I got another reject letter from CAT. So I started crying AGAIN. My boss walked by and literally said, "Oh my gosh. Are you STILL crying?"

Um...yeah. This liquid pouring out of my eyes? It means I'm still crying. And in case you don't know anything about women, bringing their attention to the fact that they're being emotional doesn't exactly help them feel less emotional. But thanks.

So I got in the car, called a couple of people and then sat in the Sonic parking lot and bawled my swollen eyes out to the one friend who actually knows about the company that I work for and the stress that I've been under. He helped - as he always has - and I felt better.

I feel like one of those stupid carnival games - the one with the dunking booth? Usually my button/trigger/lever thingie is small - and the people throwing softballs at me have to stand way back. Sometimes they hit the button which would trigger hurting my feelings. It doesn't happen often. But these days I feel like my button is HUGE and the people throwing balls at me get to stand right in front of it. It's almost guaranteed that I'll over-react and become a crying wreck. And no. I'm not pregnant. And just in case anyone's thinking it, "I like big buttons and I cannot lie..." See, I beat you to making fun of my stupid button analogy.

The day did get better. I saw an email from my outside sales rep's boss that said something along the line of "that you didn't discuss the gross inaccuracies demonstrates your professionalism. Keep up the good work." It made me feel SO much better.

And despite me not having a drop of makeup on my skin (after crying it off) no one ran away screaming at my appearance either. At this point, I'm taking that as a good thing.

Ugh!

One year ago today I started working as an engineer for Tyco. One year ago today I barely knew what the heck valves and actuators were...and today I realized just how far I've come.

How did I celebrate the day? With clowns? With balloons?

Umm...no.

I cried. AT WORK.

What am I? Five years old?

I talked with one of our customers who was absolutely SO mean, degrading, and hateful that I got mad. He literally was yelling at me. I then called one of the people at the factory and she started yelling at me. And seriously folks, I had nothing to do with the problem - I was just helping. But because my outside sales rep is on vacation, I'm the one that had to do double duty...and therefore the one that got yelled at multiple times. The customer literally kept cutting me off and finally asked if he could speak to a MAN at our facility who might know more than me. Ummm... Are you kidding me? Is this 1953? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!!?!? Hey guess what buddy? If you'd shut your freakin' mouth for 10 seconds and let me talk, you might find out that I do know what I'm talking about. The thing is, I am actually the right person for him to talk to about this. I don't know tons about the product, but as far as people in our office, I do know more than the others about this particular valve. It was just so degrading, insulting, and frustrating. It was like the creamy crap layer in my shit cake day.

And the only way that the stress came out was by crying. I was that mad. I would've gone outside to walk some of it off, but I forgot my coat and at that time the temperature outside was in the 40s. Thank goodness no one noticed me crying at my desk, but oh my gosh! The day continued to get worse...really. One call after another - I literally sent almost 100 emails and had so many phone calls I didn't get a tenth done of what I should have. I ended up driving home more than 12 hours after I left for work this morning...IN A SNOWSTORM (seriously, yesterday it was 82...today on the way home it was 32 and snowing).

UGH!

I do like my job. Really...but today I was wondering what the Sam Hill I'm doing.

I also stuck my big fat foot in my mouth by inviting my ex (yes, Jon - the one from last year) to my birthday bash in a couple of weeks. I felt horrible. He knew about it ahead of time and I invited him...but only by stumbling through the invite regarding who he might or might not be dating. I'm okay if he comes (we still share many joint friends) but I just don't want to see someone hanging all over him. It'd be weird. Seriously, I'm sure that I made enough of a fool out of myself that he won't come (and honestly, that's the way I'd prefer it) but it was such an awkward situation that I caved and invited him. And really? He is SO consumed by what others think about him that he's likely to not attend because my friends will be there...and yikes, that's several sets of cold shoulders. What can I say? I've got loyal friends. :) But I swear I SO do not want to see him and anyone he's dating playing kissy face all night (no, he's not dating the one that he cheated on me with, but STILL!). Like I've said before, I'd love for him to be happy...I just want to be happy first. :)

I know that my frustration and stress has a lot to do with the fact that I've been feeling so off kilter lately. I've got some friends that are going through some serious stuff and I'm worrying about them. In fact, I was on the phone with a good friend of mine last night until midnight - and I can't stop worrying about that. I hate to see people that I love and care about hurting. If I could do anything to take away the pain, frustration, and sadness I would. But I can't. I can't help at all. :( The good news is that I found out that another friend's lump in her breast is not cancerous...what a relief! Anyway, instead of going to sleep, I read until 3 am.

I'm sure that contributed to why I was so emotional today.

But honestly, I'm just tired and stressed and...well...UGH!

It's 8:30 and although there are things that I clearly need to do tonight, I think I'm just going to read a bit more and go to bed.

Tomorrow has got to be better, right?

To be honest, there was a good thing that happened today. I'll post on it later for two reasons...one, it's a bit soon to blog about it and two, I'm just so damn tired.

Sad faces

UGH!


What you need to know is that work has SUCKED the big one in the last couple of days. Problem after problem has come up - some my doing, some not so much.


So yesterday, after a particularly rough day, I was looking forward to going home, vegging out on the way home (listening to some groovy tunes on my iPod). I usually put it on shuffle - so I can be surprised about which of the 3000 songs come up.


I pushed the button to go past that particular song and my iPod froze up. No big deal. I'll just re-set it.
But then, the SAD MAC FACE came up on it. :(
<---for those that don't know. This is the actual picture that shows up on the iPod. :(

I hate the sad Mac face. :( It makes ME sad.


I'll try to reconfigure the iPod tonight (I had to do this once a couple of months ago), but really? How many more sad faces will it be before it dies for sure? It's not really that big of a deal seeing as how this iPod is several years old and I listen to the thing most days at work and on the way to and from work. What I'm saying is that I've gotten my money's worth.


But it IS sad.


And in the meantime I have to listen to CDs. You remember those...those little, flat, round shiny things?

UGH.


It feels like PRISON!

Manic Monday...

Since technically it is now Monday, I can officially say that today (more importantly tonight) I'm going to TRY to be good.

I'm going to be very busy tonight.

I have NO clue how to accomplish that. But I will come up with a plan to keep me busy.

Perhaps I shall rent a movie, practice paddle shifting on the Mini, go for a bike ride (if it's a nice day), or even work on my taxes (relax, I filed an extension). Maybe I'll make a new friend and we'll play Mad Libs. Hey, it could happen!

I just need diversions tonight...because I can tell, I will probably have no willpower. Especially since I was looking forward to tonight.

(sigh)

Delayed gratification? Yeah, not a big fan.

I've lost my touch...

There was another game night last night.

The night started out well when Kelly and Matt took me out to show me how to drive my car. :) I have paddle shifters on my steering wheel and I didn't know how to use them...and was afraid of breaking my car while trying to find out. So, a couple of weeks ago while at the Auto Show, Kelly volunteered Matt to teach me. They both were patient and now I know how to rock it in my car.

People, I'm not good at a lot of things...but typically I do well as a teammate or a participant in board games. Last night - after some 4 hours of Apples to Apples, I realized that I had only gotten ONE apple card.

That might be explained by the fact that I played Sour Apples when everyone else was playing the regular way because it was funnier. It might also be that Kelly has magical powers that she was exerting over all of us as she was able to get cards from almost everyone in one round (admit it Kelly...have you and Matt been practicing since the last game night??). Or maybe I was distracted by all the shiny objects in the room.

(sigh)

The best thing about the night was obviously hanging out with everyone. :) Yadda yadda yadda it was a good night after all.

The end.

Who knows what could happen?

This made me laugh just thinking about it tonight - so I decided to post about it.

This past weekend I was in Dallas...we stayed at the beautiful, wonderful, fantastic hotel - the LaQuinta of Grand Prairie. Okay...who am I kidding? It was kind of a dive. BUT they had waffle makers that made waffles in the shape of Texas. And really, isn't that more important?

Anyway, as I was checking out on Sunday morning, I noticed that there was a sign on the front desk. It said:

Put your business card in the fishbowl.

Who knows what could happen?

You could win a free night's stay!!!

Um... Yeah. I'm guessing I know what could happen now. I could win a free night's stay! Am I right? :)

My wedding plans...

I've been getting sick this week and even my best attempts to ward it off with Echinacea and garlic pills are not working. So I went to bed around 8:20 last night. YAY! :)

Last night I had several weird dreams (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the NyQuill that I took)...one of which was of my wedding. It wasn't one of those dreams where all you have are horrible nightmares of what goes wrong (although if I ever DO get married I'm sure that I'll have those leading up to it).

But the exciting thing is that apparently the dog that we had when I was a kid (a Doberman named Lear) will be there.

That'll be good. I haven't seen her in decades. :)

Darts

Today I was feeling a little frumpy so I decided that I'd wear a cute skirt, shirt, and my Mary Janes. Typically wearing a skirt is a no-no at work because of the amount of time that we have to spend in the shop each day. But today, I'm a rebel. Some days I'm like that. :)

The good news is my skirt is a size or two too big.

Call me McGyver...I secured the excess fabric via a safety pin so I don't moon people at work with my skirt slowly working it's way down. Plus, since I'm wearing a longer shirt so it covers up the bunching that happened. No one can know. :) I'm McGyver AND Columbo.

At any rate, one of our receptionists commented on my cute skirt and my ever so SLOWLY shrinking body. I, for reasons I'm not even sure of, showed her my waist where the extra material is gathered on the side.

Our other receptionist was SHOCKED that I would secure my wardrobe with a safety pin. She told me it would so much simpler to just put darts in my clothing.

I was all, Who do you think I am? I don't sew things. She asked if I had a sewing machine. WHAT? No. I'm not that person. I aspire to be that person - the one that makes my kids clothes or Halloween costumes...but really? Not so much now.

Apparently for me, safety pins work JUST fine.

Laffy Taffy = hope? :)

Remember that candy, Laffy Taffy? It's the one that has a taffy-like substance in the wrapper in various flavors. On the outside of the wrapper there are jokes. Written by kids, submitted by kids, and probably printed on a printing machine run by kids.

Lance keeps these stocked at his desk for people. Personally I keep Jolly Ranchers, but hey, what is the company I work for other than a melting pot of candy concoctions? :)

Anyway, yesterday these were the "jokes" on mine: What kind of cat likes water? An octo-puss.

The last one on the wrapper said this: What kind of ship never sinks? Friendship.

Oh... Laffy Taffy. I hope you're right.

Flipped

This morning I flew from Tucson to Dallas.  I mis-remembered my flight time...which was actually a good thing since I was sluggish getting ready this morning anyway.  So with my extra time, I decided to go up to the gate and ask if there were any exit row seats available.

I stood in the little roped off line area so that I could wait for the person in front of me (a 90 year old man) to finish his business with the flight attendant/checker-in-er. :)  It was hard not to overhear their conversation...and as I waited, I found that this was the situation.  The guy was flying from someplace else to Tucson to Dallas and then on to LaGuardia.  Since our flight was going to be delayed, he was going to get in to Dallas too late to get to his connection.  He was concerned because he didn't know if someone was going to pick him up at the airport.  She wanted to confirm him on a later flight...but he never gave the okay to do so because he didn't understand what was happening... or at least didn't clearly understand.

Now, this guy was really worried.  He clearly was concerned and kept saying "I don't know what to do.  I've never been in this situation before."  The American Airlines rep wasn't exactly explaining things clearly and at one point he said, "Maybe I should just not travel because I'm 90 and I'm too old."  She replied that no, that wasn't the case, but I could tell that they were just not communicating.  So I stepped up and asked if I could help - I had a cell phone and a laptop and could call the car company of whomever was supposed to pick him up.  If she didn't have the number, I could look up the name on my laptop but that The stewardess was not happy that I volunteered and indicated that she had tried everything.  

The man said, "I just don't understand why this is happening.  I don't know what to do - I've never been in this situation before and I guess I'm scared."  Long story short, the woman realized that she had to do something and called the number to the travel agency herself.  She confirmed everything back to him and he said, "thanks so much.  Sometimes I'm neurotic and when I get stressed, I just flip!"  He shuffled off to his seat and was pleased - feeling that all was right with the world because he knew what the plan was.  

I'm sure you're wondering what the point of this is.

First, it made me wonder what the heck I'll be faced with when I'm 90.  I don't know what will be going on, but I'm sure I'll be worried too.

Secondly, I found his conversation with the stewardess to be so parallel to my life at times.  Sometimes I find myself totally scared - not knowing what to do, but knowing that I can't stay where I'm at.  I feel alone.  I've never been in that situation before, I don't understand why something is happening, and I don't know what to do.  I get neurotic...and I want to "flip. "

I realized that just because I haven't been in this situation before doesn't mean that there is not a solution out there.  It doesn't mean that no one can help - and it doesn't mean that people don't want to help.  If I can calm myself, breathe, talk to someone who I know wants to help, or even just realize that it will all be okay then it just might be okay.  Just because I don't have the answers that moment, doesn't mean that answers won't present themselves.  Just because the answer is right there with people trying to help me doesn't mean that if I don't realize it, that opportunity is gone for forever.

It was such a human moment... and for some reason, has really stuck with me today.

Just call me Annie Oakley!

Dear friends, so sorry I haven't written in a while. After Sunday's bout with a restless night (full of nightmares that I had been kidnapped), I slept like a dog, rug, rock, or other object on Monday night... This left me to do all of my packing for the trip to Tucson for business (flight left Wednesday morning) on Tuesday night. Which, if you know me well, you know I did not do. I'm horrible about packing - I don't do it until the day of...even if my flight is leaving at the crack of dawn.

Anyway, yesterday I woke up at 4 am to do said packing, dropped the pooch off at a boarding place, drove to the airport, ended up parking MUCH farther away than what I thought, stood in line for an hour to get my tickets (seriously? It's a Wednesday morning), stood in line for almost an hour to get frisked by the TSA agents, and walked to my gate which was the most remote section of B-gate...so remote that it was a little add-on that I didn't know the airport HAD. I got there in just enough time to board the plane. Oh - wait, I did go to the bookshop and bought a new book. No, I'm not done reading "Eat, Pray, Love" but since it seems to help me at the weirdest times, I kinda' want to draw that book out. And I also brought the book that my mom and I are reading "A New Earth: Discovering Your Life's Purpose" which in my opinion so far is a bunch of hooey.

I get to Tucson, get picked up by Dave, the outside sales rep that I'll be traveling with, and we wait for my bags. We wait and wait and wait. Until finally some guy comes up to me and asks my last name. Upon giving my answer, he immediately says "yeah, your bag is not coming." I considered crying, screaming, throwing the small Asian person that was standing next to me, but since I had the audience of Dave, decided to react like an adult and sighed instead. The thing is that we would be traveling around and I would actually end up staying in a small town two hours outside of Tucson. He assured me that there was a good possibility that it would arrive that night.

Dave and I start driving and I have to stop here and say kudos for me for not falling asleep. I am horrible about that - I mean, my parents would put me in a car when I was a kid and drive around if they couldn't get me to sleep. Yes, it's almost as if I am watching a movie at home. There were a couple of times that I ALMOST fell asleep, but luckily I was able to hold it together.

Donned with a hard hat and safety glasses (man, I looked H-O-T!) we went to the mines. It was good...but definitely boring (can you TELL I need to be in a different job?). We went back to the hotel and Dave said, "Why don't we squeeze off a couple?" Uh, what? Flashes of all the things that he *could* mean went through my head. None of them sounded like a good idea. But it turns out he meant that we could shoot guns. LONG story short, we'd had several conversations about this because this is something he enjoys and something I've never done. We drove to a very remote part of the desert (wasn't too hard...Safford, AZ is TINY!) and after he gave me a short lesson, we started shooting at plastic bottles. The first clip (i.e. the sliding thingy that you see people shove into the bottom of their guns - it holds 10 bullets), I hit the bottles FOUR times! Woohoo! I shot two more rounds and Dave said that I did well. YAY! It was a lot more fun than what I thought it was.

We went to dinner with two of his old friends from high school and then we went back to the hotel and I found that my luggage was there. I've never been so happy not to shop at Wal-Mart in my entire life. :)