Exciting News

Big news dear Readers! The name of this blog is going to be changing in the coming weeks. I'll give you plenty of notice and I'm pretty sure the old address will work, at least for awhile. I'm not quite ready to reveal the new name but I am very excited to enter this new phase of my blog's life.

Hope you are enjoying your Saturday!

DO Pay Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain

I attended a memorial service today for a former colleague and friend who passed away of brain cancer at the age of 67. Many of my colleagues from "back in the day" were there and although it was wonderful to see them all, the reason we were all gathered was evident by the table and flowers at the front of the room. One of us was gone.

I have so many thoughts and questions since leaving the service and the whole thing is, quite frankly, so surreal. But something that was profound was the amount of people there to pay their respects. You take away the career and the hobbies and the responsibilities and all the things we stress about every day, every hour, and what is left is the people you've touched.

As the Wizard said to the Tin Man, "A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others." (Yes, in addition to the Brady Bunch (click HERE) I have a strong association with "The Wizard of Oz".)

What my favorite movie and classic TV show confirms is that your family and your friends, no matter how much of a rag-tag team they may be, stay together through everything, even death. My husband and I are no Mike and Carol but we've got each other and I've also got my own personal Tin Wo-Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion with me through this Yellow Brick Road of life.

Keep the Ruby Slippers, I've got everything I need. I hope that you do too.

What Do You Mean You Put Money In It And Make A Telephone Call? How Do You Drive Around With It?

It used to be when you came home from a vacation, you would unpack, do laundry, maybe go grocery shopping, pick up the mail you had stopped delivery on while you were not home.

Nowadays, if you have the Geek Factor in your DNA, there are a host of other things you have to do. Catch up on emails, check your favorite websites since the internet in your hotel was so slow it was as if it were 2005. Imagine! I was behind on reading Tweets and watching Tweeted videos and various other social networking chores.

The argument can be made that these machines that seem to make things easier for us simply add things to our daily "To Do" list. But I lived in a world where we had no cell phones or computers or any of the other things we keep clipped to our bodies these days. And I wouldn't go back for all the leftover pay phone change in the world.

Plucking On The Beach

I am at the beach on vacation for a few days. I was sitting in my beach chair today, enjoying the cool ocean on my feet and legs and watching the little ones experience the ocean for the first time. Then I experienced something for the first time myself!

A young woman wearing a bikini, in her early 20's, sitting on a towel by herself, had a pair of tweezers and was plucking hairs from her inner thigh. She did it a few times to her left thigh, then moved on to her right. I had my sunglasses on but if I didn't my bulging-out-of-my-head eyes would be a perfect compliment to my gaping mouth. Just when my mind caught up to my eyes, she then plucked some from her stomach!

I am all for good grooming and personal hygiene but, and call me old-fashioned, let's limit it while on the beach to applying sunscreen and combing your hair. I guess it could be worse. Nail clippers? Razors? I suppose I should not give anybody any ideas . . .

The Week In Review

Monday is the day of ick
Tuesday you are still feeling sick
Wednesday you pass over the hump
Thursday it’s back to being a grump
Friday is the finish line
Saturday, if I’m lucky, the day is all mine
Sunday you see Monday around the bend
Then it begins all over again.

There But For The Grace Of God

I can't stop watching it or thinking about it or tearing up when I see it.

I don't know what you believe, but this has to make you believe in something.

An Unwelcome Visitor

If Monday was in my front yard, I'd be in my backyard.

And vice versa.

Actually I'd be in bed.