The Mundane

Fall has arrived in Kansas City. It's really beautiful here this weekend and I'm glad I'm in town to enjoy it. So for those of you that keep track, Friday was my b-day. As I was pretty exhausted from traveling and work, it has been a very low key b-day weekend, which worked out well. The most unfortunate part of the weekend was that I had to work some of it...some catch up stuff.

I know I have been talking about friendships lately...they are difficult to maintain when you don't see the person on a regular basis. But even those close by, at times, can be challenging, especially if you feel you are doing all the work to keep that relationship going and the person you rely on falls off the face of the earth. Hurt feelings and disappointment.

But the two constants in my life these days are my boys, Beckham and Fuji. Beckham is growing in leaps and bounds - literally. He's incredibly playful and there never seem to be enough toys or the right toys out for his use. Fuji on the other hand, has reverted back into his "I vant to be alone" days and spends most of his time trying to avoid his new little brother who worships the ground he walks on. I do hope over time they will settle in to more of a love relationship instead of the current hate.

My sister-in-law is due to have my future niece/nephew any day now. I swear it seems she's been pregnant for years! We are all tired of waiting on the Peanut to arrive - she/he is taking serious time in arriving! I can't wait to meet this little person. Boy or girl, hair color, eye color? Personality? They refuse to tell us names as well, but I am assured that no bizarre names will show up. My mother is a teacher and her students names take the cake. No "Courvoisier" for our family. :)

I'm off to Rochester, NY tomorrow, followed by St. Louis. Woot Woot. You know you are jealous! The Riveria? No, it's Rochester baby! I'm thinking I may have to bring a coat.

So, I'm off to clean the house which drives me crazy as the only person who will enjoy it is my cat sitter!

Our lips are sealed

So I was thinking of a Seinfeld episode this morning on my drive to the aiport for the bajillionth time...the one where George & Jerry talk about whatever happened to flying cars? I wanna know whatever happened to cars with auto-pilot?! Planes have it - why not cars? Surely someone is working on this with the advent of GPS now...I mean think of the accidents that could be avoided. Last night I got in from the dreaded airport pretty late and then had to drive a 1/2 hour home...exhausted. Now they say that sleep depravation driving is worse than drunk driving. Don't you want to know who "they" are and why do "they" know everything and talk to so much?

So I was reading the article on life in the technology age. It was a two person perspective article: one who could only communicate via technology and the other who could only communicate the old fashioned way - letter writing, telephoning, and, (gasp) face-to-face! It was really interesting. The one who could only communicate via IM, email, etc., was overloaded pretty quickly. Apparently, studies are showing that they faster technology gets, the lower our tolerance for waiting for anything gets. We want instant gratification for everything. It is also changing our vocabulary and the way we write - all the constant abbreviations! The one who had to communicate the old fashioned way found out she doesn't really have the close relationships she thought she had. So many of us fire off an email to an old friend and then we just get to check the box that we enquired on the health of our friends mother - but we really don't care how that person's mother is, we just want the credit for asking.

TTYL

Flight 212 has landed

I hate flying. It hasn't always been this way. I have been flying since I was 3 years old. Passport to prove it. I used to love flying. Thought it was fun. Loved all of that stuff, paragliding off the side of mountains, zip lines, snowboarding, you name it. Now, I can't stand it. Flying is the worst. Supposedly you spend a 1/3 of your life in bed. I think I spend a 1/3 of my life on planes. Had I known that I would spend that much time flying around in a tin can...ugh. It is not glamorous. It is not fun, especially these days of so called high security. What can possibly happen to me and my ID and boarding pass in a 10 foot radius in which I am moving like cattle through a X-Ray checkpoint that I should need to show my "papers" 5 times?!!! Can someone explain to me how that makes me safer? The liquid ban is annoying right now. My trips these days are quick overnights and I now have to check luggage. I know the airlines are making money hand over fist on the all the extra luggage checked. I do wonder if the sock business has taken off as everyone must remove their shoes now. I'm just ticked off and dehydrated from not being able to bring a drink on the plane. And you don't want to chug down a drink prior to your flight because you can't get up for the first 30 minutes of the flight and you can't get up for the last 30 minutes of the flight. "If she stands up, we'll all stand up...it'll be anarchy"! (you get bonus points if you know that quote).

Progress report on cursing: It's going better than I expected and it's not even my birthday yet so it doesn't really count. (For the few who may not be aware, you have 2 more shopping days until Friday, September 22nd). I still tend to curse quite a bit around those that I am comfortable with, but I'm not sure I really like alternate curse words, such as Jeez Louise, Frap, Frigging...I feel like an idiot when I say those. There was this guy I used to work with that said "Jeepers". I found it really amusing that this grown man would use the word "Jeepers". Although you always knew it was something awful if he really cursed. My goal is to figure out a way to not use expletives at all. Gosh Darn It!

Potty Training

So I've decided after not being able to eat a meal in front of my date with Alex, 5 years old, without accidentally cursing that I am in serious need of cleaning up my potty mouth. I'm not sure how or why it seems that I can barely finish a sentence without some explicative, but that is going to change. I've decided as I never keep New Year's Resolutions, that I need to create a Birthday Resolution. So I am going to quit cursing all the time. With the proviso that I can curse if I do something that causes physical pain. But as I am probably the LEAST graceful person on the planet and manage to do something ridiculous like trip and fall, sprain my ankle or stub my toe on at least a monthly basis...I'm not sure that my proviso is going to effectively curb my cursing. So...okay...that's it, no more.

F*ck.

New Leaf

So today I sort of turned a corner with my new crappy job from hell. I've decided to try not to care as much. It's actually working. I need to get back to my plan of not making my job my entire life.

Tonight I had dinner with two married couples and one of the couples son, Alex, who is 5. Alex and I sat next to each other and had what was probably one of the most enjoyable conversations I've had with a guy in a while - it was very deep. We talked about what to be for Halloween. I mean this is a huge decision. Right now he's considering Bubba Fet - which I am in agreement with, as Bubba Fet is a great character. Last year he was Batman. I was bummed out by the number of trick-o-treaters that came by my house last year and by how OLD some of them were! Although I remember trying to milk it for all it was worth towards the end.

There was this lounge singer and piano player at the restaurant tonight. I usually hate it when I get seated at a table near live music and I'm trying to eat and enjoy conversation, but these two guys were pretty good. They sang Happy Birthday for this guy who was 87 if he was a day. It was so cute, his whole family was out with him. He looked like an older version of Larry Orbach from Law & Order who passed away. Chung Chung.

Passing the Buck

Taking responsibility for your actions or lack of actions is very important to me. I'm the first person to step up when I've done something wrong or neglected to do something that was required. And usually I have a solution for the issue. I really dislike people who refuse to recognize their culpability in events.

I am quite happy to be back in my little house instead of on the road - but I know I had better enjoy it as next week and the following I'm traveling almost every single day! With the exception of only the MOST important day of the entire year - MY BIRTHDAY!!! That's right, ladies and gentlemen, it's the big 35! SCARY! But the alternative is worse, right?

There is a big art fair here in KC the weekend of the 22nd, so I'm definitely going. There are always amazing artists, food and bands. I hope it's nice weather.

Half Truths

I completely forgot to mention my blindish date from hell on Saturday night! In terms of dating, you name it and I've tried it. From dating agencies, speed dating and online dating - it's a nightmare! Of course you want to put your best foot forward, but unfortunately you find some people aren't truthful or perhaps exaggerate the truth. So my date turns out to be a 36 year old father of 4 and also a grandpa! I mean seriously! I was going in thinking it was one kid - but hey, the other 3 and the grandkid, just a detail really. It was completely obvious that we had nothing in common and I was all too happy to run away from the get go.

It is so bad, it's gotten to the point that I can tell within the first 3 seconds whether or not I'm going to like the person!

Tell the truth people - it will come to light one way or another.

Welcome to the Urbana Jungle

I'm currently stuck in Urbana, Illinois dwiddling my thumbs until tomorrow when I get to work a career fair. I'm actually not looking forward to the career fair. There's nothing wrong with it, but this time of year for the last 4 years I've been in Monte Carlo working on a yacht...so clearly these two experiences: Hampton Inn, Urbana IL v Yacht in Monte Carlo so the same. Yes, I am a snob.

I had an old friend come in town for a night to visit. I used to teach English as a Second Language with her in Japan. I hadn't seen her in 7 years. All I kept thinking was, "how do you lose 100 pounds in 3 days?". Sadly that did not occur, but happily I was able to catch up with Jaime. Isn't it funny when you see someone after so long and you communicate via email, you forget what they know v. what you think you told them? At times I know we both felt like we were dropped into a conversation we knew nothing about. Too funny.

And since I was on such a role with old friends, on my drive from Midway airport - seeing as how I had nothing to do and frankly corn fields get old after the first one, I called up my old roommate from NYC, Kitty. Kitty is married with 2 kids.

I have 4 very good girlfriends: DD, Kitty, Lisa and Jaime. All but me and Jaime are married with kids - but Jaime is pretty much on her way to the same fate. Soon it will just be Crazy Aunt Leslie with 40 cats. It is so challenging to keep in touch seeing as how none of live in the same place any more, but when I lost my job back in July, they all reached out, which was so nice. The type of friends that you may not speak every day, but you know you could count on when your life falls apart.

2 of my other fantastic friends are former vendors, Sally and Shari. Both of these ladies are such class acts and have been so supportive of me I can't say enough about them. I really miss working with them as we were so much more than work friends and now I don't get to chat with them nearly enough.

So over the last few months of being on the receiving end of some serious love from so many as I was going through so much with losing my job, I've found that although I may have a job I hate with a passion now, I am blessed with so much love and support in my life. And after feeling alone for so long, this is nice.

Tragically Funny

So today I went to see Little Miss Sunshine - quite possibly the most "real" movie about a family that I have seen in a long time. I read that some critic thinks Steve Carrel should get an Academy Award for it...I wouldn't go that far, but I did find it interesting that both he and Greg Kinnear (who also stars in the movie) started out in comedy. I loved Kinnear when he was the host of Talk Soup. Not a huge fan of the guy who does it now.

The movie so realistically portrays what could be any family down on it's luck and trying to figure out how they could all possibly be related to one another. Not unlike most of us. I often wonder how on earth my brother and I can be related when we don't look alike and we definitely don't act similar. I think his age has always been about 64 and mine will stay at about 15.

Speaking of being 15, I missed not only the Emmys this year, but also the VMAs. How sad is it that I care? I like to watch for the fashion and the horrible awards speeches - I'd like to thank God, my lawyer and my agent. But I was sadly denied this year. Sigh...now I can only look forward to the Oscars. But frankly all of these shows are getting so lame. I mean, where is Byork when you need her?

The Worst Week Ever!

So after I created this thing, I kept thinking what am I going to write about...then I decided that Blogger could save me hundreds on therapy! So stand back everyone - I'm coming out of the corner!

This was quite possibly one of the worst weeks, work wise, that I have had in a long time. 2 very unpleasant conversations were had over my dissatisfaction with a vendor and of course my so-called management is reactive, indecisive and a complete idiot!

A rant on management: just because you don't like the solution presented to you by your peons doesn't mean that a solution was not presented!

Moving on to happier topics. I like cats. I like dogs too, but cats are more my thing. I had two cats - they were like bookends. 2 white males, one with gold eyes and one with blue eyes. The one with gold eyes, Maru, passed away a little over a year ago. So everyone in my life, including me, seemed to think that Mr. Blue Eyes - or Fuji needed a playmate. So, I recently added Beckham (name chosen by vet's office where I got him) to the family.

It has been about a month since Beckham came to live with me and Fuji. Fuji has not been all together happy about this new edition. But I think they are working it out. I will post some photos of the boys.

I turn 35 on September 22nd. Woot Woot - not. Sure it's better than the alternative, but remember that horrible Bruce Willis movie with him and the chubby kid who stalks him and turns out to be him when he was a kid wanting to know what the hell had happened to him now that he was an adult? I often think that if the current me could meet the 9 year old me...what would she say? GET A LIFE! That's what she would say!

So on that note, I'm off to see if someone won't go get a beer with me to make the end of my "Worst Week Ever" better.