The Elephant Theory

I learned something from my days as a Mary Kay rep (a long time ago) that I have carried with me and used frequently in times when life seemed to hand me a constant stream of overwhelming challenges.

You can eat an entire elephant one bite at a time.

VA Tech

I'm probably not really ready yet to write about the events there earlier this week. I know my step-son is at school there. I know he is safe - he wasn't on campus at the time. I know he knew victims.

I can only be so very thankful that he is unharmed. I feel a deep sorrow for those who were injured and killed and for the ones left behind who loved them.

The school is a good school. People come out of there ready for the world and ready to give the world their all. The student who snapped is an exception to that. I can say that I wish someone had acted more pro-actively to get him in control before this happened, but too many freedoms would have to be lost for everyone to make that a legal possibility. Sometimes, you just don't know all the facts until everything is over and the body count piles up.

I wanted nothing more in the world than to get on a plane and fly to the school. I'd spoken to my step-son. He told me he was fine. That's not the same as putting my arms around the one I consider to be under my protection. Whether or not I felt the labor pains, whether or not I changed their diapers, he and his brother are my sons in my heart; and I would do anything, including laying down my own life, to keep them from harm. I wanted to be there, to put my arms around him and shield him from anything else that may come near. Knowing his mother, she felt the same. And if I know her at all, she drove straight there as soon as she heard. Or she will be there shortly. I will be satisfied with that.

Breezes

Yesterday I was off all day. I managed to sleep until almost 9 a.m. It felt pretty good.

Yaw called about 9:15 thinking he was going to wake me up. I knew we had to head for the airport far too soon after he would arrive, so I had already gotten up and started getting ready.

He was almost to my place when he called so I finished up quickly and met him at the door. We only had about an hour to spend before we had to leave because Brandon had created some strange concoction in the sacred coffee pot and I wouldn't drink it. So, naturally we were going to have to stop somewhere (Dunkin' Donuts) so I could properly caffeinatefor my day.

At the drive-up we annoyed the poor employee while I questioned Yaw as to whether or not he wanted something and what it might be. He decided on a large white hot chocolate. White in this case described both the flavor and the temperature. He took a sip and I asked how it was. He said it was hot. I said "It is called 'HOT' chocolate." He said it was so hot it burned his tongue. I was impressed. Usually when I warm things up in the microwave, it goes in for 2 minutes on high or he thinks it isn't thoroughly heated. I sipped happily at my medium iced coffee with 3 Splenda packets, some cream and some caramel flavor. Yummy.

Off we went to the airport. We were in his car with cruise control and an engine that doesn't shake at 75 mph... oh, and a radar detector. We made great time getting there. I pulled up to the departures gate and said goodbye so he can go save a client for a week or so.

Heading home, I called Deb to see if she wanted to have some beach time with me. It would be my first visit this year. She is already a nice toasted shade of tan due to her Latina blood. She said that sounded great and said to call her when I got back into Titusville. About a minute after I hung up, I found the traffic jam - not very welcome since I had to pee before I dropped Yaw off but I couldn't go inside because I would have to leave the car. For the next 45 minutes, I spent an eternity sure in the knowledge that my bladder would not last until I reached the next sign of civilization. I reached my exit, which luckily comes out within a mile or two of Summit. And, just as luckily, I had my work badge on me so I could get in the door. Which I did, and not a moment too soon.

I got back in the car and called Deb to let her know I was finally back in town and we eventually agreed that I would get ready and meet at her house. She had her son and his friend on hand and so far hadn't managed to convince them that they wanted to spend the afternoon at the beach. I explained it was company I wanted as much as beach and, being Deb, she understood. We spent a moment playing with Clancy's snake. An itty-bitty boa of some sort. He sensed the heat in my chest from the magnifying glass effect of my windshield and was heading straight there before I stopped him. The whole scene reminded me very much of the manner by which my ex-husband and I selected the love bird we purchased. A story, perhaps, for another time.

After entertaining the snake for a few minutes, Deb informed me that our beach time would be spent in beach chairs in the back yard with a table for our drinks and crackers, and tiny boom box that her ipod plugged into it. We were in heaven with the sun and the breezes and the music. Our taste in music is identical, i.e, pretty much anything. We were set for the day.

After we had enough sun, I piled myself back into my truck and came home. I watched one of the movies I'd rented and watched the news and weather so I'd know what to expect today. I had opened up the house to let it air, but some heavy air moved in and made it too hot and humid. When I watched the weather, they said today we'd have heavy thunder storms through the morning. I decided to move my truck over to block in Yaw's car so I wouldn't have to walk in the rain on my way to work this morning.

It wasn't raining when I headed out this morning, but I was still glad I'd moved the truck. When I came home this afternoon, I opened everything up again. The rain had brought in some nice cooler temperatures so I could turn off the a.c. and breathe. Right now I'm enjoying the fruits of my efforts.

The breeze is blowing nicely, and I've moved the fan (that big honkin' fan from when my a.c. died over in the towers) into hall, to suck the air from the front of the house into the back. Where my p.c. sits I am excellently positioned to feel it passing through. Add to that the sound of the breezes blowing through the Oak branches and palm tree boughs, and I've got a heaven of a completely different sort.

I spoke to Yaw a few minutes ago. I asked how he had spent his day. He said he'd found a new website and spent his whole day staring at it. It's apparent purpose is to show every TV show ever. He latched onto the sci-fi section and all was lost. I'm sure he will do nothing but watch that until it's time to go save the credit union tomorrow.

I think I'm finally wound down enough to head to bed and get rested for tomorrow. As soon as Dresden Files is over. A girl's gotta have her goals.

I came home last night in the rain and was wearing heals. I told myself, I'll park Branden in if he's home, but just long enough to feed the kitties and change into some comfortable shoes. Then I'll move the truck.

I came inside and fed the fur bellies, then went to my room and changed shoes. Branden came out of his room as I was picking up my keys, so I told him I was going to move my truck out of his way.

He said not to bother; he's off in the morning and he's going to a party tonight. Someone should be coming to pick him up soon.

I remember those times...


. . .


We have made some changes at work with how we organize our department. We now have call takers and researchers. I chose to be a researcher for two reasons: 1) I like solving puzzles; 2) I'm really evil in the morning and I think I do not possess the correct mind set to be on the phone my entire day - especially first thing in the morning.

The first full week of this new arrangement came on the heals of the end of a month and the end of a quarter. In the financial industry that's a pretty busy time. I felt a great deal of stress all last week because of the influx of new issues to research. Fortunately, so far this week, things have slowed down a great deal and things are going more like I envisioned them (knock wood).

My stress levels are greatly reduced.


. . .


I've gotten started back into painting ceramics. (Maybe that's helping with the stress too.) I went to the only store I know in Titusville where I can buy bisque or unpainted fired ceramics and loaded up on a few pieces. I've painted a lizard and a panther and am working on a piece that is two tree stumps with mushrooms growing off the side.

Yaw and I met some folks at a recent seminar that are opening up a shop for all kinds of New-Age sort of stuff and they are setting aside space for local crafters and artists to sell their wares. I'll be taking these pieces to them in hopes of finding an easy buyer.

These are not my typical fare, but I think they look pretty good. I'm especially pleased with the lizard. When I bought it I had no idea what kind of lizard it was. The feet really threw me. When I saw them, I thought this must be some sort of fantasy creature (which would fit completely into my normal theme of dragons and such). I started looking up lizards on the Internet and after about an hour's worth of poking around discovered this is a chameleon. Not just any old chameleon, but a Panther Chameleon. Each of its four feet are split into two sections, each one looking like a complete foot. I really don't believe I can describe them clearly, but if you Google "Panther Chameleon" you'll find lots of pictures of them and you can see it for yourself.

Now I want one for real so I can ogle its feet all the time. I know, I'm not right. What else is new?

Movie Review

Because everyone wants to know MY opinion of the movies that are out there.

Yesterday, I had to have a slice of pizza from Valentino's for lunch. Don't know why, just had to. So we went to Valentino's, which is about 10 minutes from work in a small mall called Searstown. I believe it's called Searstown because it's in town and there's a Sears in it. I could be wrong.

Yaw decided he had to go into Beall's and buy a pair of pants, which he did--for 80 cents. Why am I the only one who can't do that? In the meantime, I had gotten our table and ordered our food. He's pretty easy to order for: water with lemon, no ice, and any food loaded with vegetables, especially onions. He came back and we ate and he mentioned that some of the movies we want to see are playing in the theater down the hall. So we decided to arrange our schedules so we could hit a 7 pm showing.

After we ate, we walked down to see the list of what's showing. Of the ones we'd discussed, we decided on Shooter because it was action and that's what we were in the mood for. We went back to work and finished our day, headed home and fed the critters, ate some popcorn chicken to go with the movie popcorn, and out we went.

I am really glad we went. The short and easy description is Rambo, with a better plot/story line, better acting, better costuming, and better effects. No disrespect intended towards the participants in the making of Rambo. This was just better. I've always been a fan of Mark Wahlberg, and was quite pleased to see Danny Glover play a not-so-nice guy. He may have done that before, but I can't really remember it. Also, the site selections were beautiful. The one thing I would have changed is I would have drawn a clearer line connecting the Ethiopian President to the events shown in the opening scene. If you didn't happen to see the footnote on the screen saying "Ethiopia" you would never understand the connection until the end when the connection is finally made by the dialogue.

Overall, though, and excellent action movie that goes well with a medium popcorn and a medium soda.