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It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road. --Holden Caulfield, Catcher in the Rye
...so yesterday I told everyone at work about the Blissdom conference. They all looked at me rather mystified as I prattled on about the accommodations and the fact that Harry Connick, Jr. will be singing for us Saturday night and that I'm determined not to buy one single article of new clothing for this grand adventure (my M.O. is to run out and buy expensive things right before an exciting trip) and that I don't have a laptop which is a bit like arriving at a polo tournament without your horse! As I said--mystified.(I have never once brought up my part-time job at a small accounting firm in Virginia Beach .....I've been saving it for a future post(s) ......I love it and work with some v-e-r-y fascinating people (hi y'all!) ......and wrapping up--get your tax stuff to your accountant NOW!!!! ......you can thank me for this very excellent advice on April 15th)
(btw, I was born in May 1961 so I am barely a Generation X-er--well me and George Clooney who was born 18 days before me--charming company although he appears to like years-younger women not days-younger women .....sigh)Aging. Not a new human experience. If life is a mountain, it is as if I have reached a clearing near the top. I've stopped here for awhile and am resting. I look all around me--I can see the path I have taken to get here. I can see others behind me, on their way up. I can see those ahead of me on the path making their way down the mountain. I can see the path in front of me leading into the future. It is, at once, magnificent and daunting. It is empowering and heartbreaking. Frightening and exciting. Mysterious and certain. Validating and invalidating.
In truth I was actually snuggled as deeply into the old leather couch as possible under the penguined-fleece blanket Thing One and Thing Two gave me for Christmas 7 years ago that completely clashes with the "decor" (no other penguins in sight) of my living room, wearing the fashion forward combo of old-pilled-yoga-leggings and my Janis Joplin t-shirt that is only cool now because "vintage" is momentarily, happily cool.The blunders make us feel better about our own fashion choices--we would NEVER have allowed our stylists to talk us into those blunder get-ups:
The public can also help by texting “Haiti” to 90999 to send a $10 donation to the Red Cross, through an effort backed by the U.S. State Department. Funds will go to support American Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.OK simply text "Haiti" to 90999 .......and your cell phone will be charged $10.00 (something most of us can easily afford even during a recession).
Btw, snide cynical me has to add that these experiments in order to accurately measure the true human impulse, has to be performed on young humans before we become suspicious, manipulative (not very much) older humans. And these very young humans portray an adorable, purely human, altruistic nature that, for once, makes me proud to be a Homo Sapien Sapien.If you're inclined you can watch the entire 54:42 episode called "So Human, So Chimp". Or if you can spare 11:55 for just Chapter Four I promise you won't be sorry. Just click here and look for Chapter Four, "Chimps vs. Children", or zoom to 29:11 left in the episode: The Human Spark, Episode Two "So Human, So Chimp", full episode (54:42)
It’s been a rough week for me as many of you who have kindly sent your kind regards my way (I am so very appreciative, please know) are aware. I’m rather “just going through the motions” which is completely normal after a >four-year relationship comes to an end so let’s not indulge me too much. As a matter of fact, in the “things could be much worse” department, the morning after my sad-sack-last-post, I was off to work when I saw that a home in my neighborhood had gone up in flames!!!!!!!!! There’s crime scene tape everywhere and blackened, broken windows that have been wide open this whole 20 degree weather weekend, replete with singed draperies flapping in and out of the frigid breeze. Awful. From what I gather, no one was hurt and the stove had been left on. But seriously, in that light, I was humbled.
Still …..I’m sad.But at Verizon I am cheerfully informed that my contract is up for renewal which means that I can buy a new phone at an insanely inflated price, but wait!! It’s a good deal because without the new contract the new phone costs $10 million dollars! So it’s a STEAL!!!!!!???
Now I’ve been happy with my nifty phone—it’s only two years old. It’s working fine and only shows signs of wear where the salt water literally “burned off” the pretty chrome parts when me & my book club girlfriends (Hi you guys!) were caught out in a hurricane-style, sudden thunderstorm one, initially, lovely summer evening at the beach this past August. Suffice to say it became a rather dripping wet keystone cops affair and we were quite lucky that we weren’t struck by lightening, and that in the end, it was only my pretty phone that gave away the rather insane aspects of the ordeal. (read: my phone spent the evening swimming around in the tidal pool created in my beach bag along with my sunscreen and sunglasses that naturally had been rendered completely useless by the current state of affairs—i.e. a hurricane). And naturally, as these brushes with danger go, we laughed ourselves silly when it was all over and broke open countless bottles of wine to celebrate our aliveness.The salesman at Verizon began taking Thing One & I around the store on a tour of every inflated-priced phone they are currently offering (read: all of them). Now I have been mildly flirting with the idea of my next phone being a Smartphone; particularly since I started blogging in October and even more particularly since everyone else seems to be having so much fun Tweeting and me & my pretty phone just look at each other and say “Tweet” …what?
And finally, definitely on a serious note, let’s pray for the nice people in the burned-out house and remind ourselves not to accidentally leave the stove on.
