ssh...

i got a promotion today

:o)


i'm not supposed to tell anyone until the official announcement on tuesday... but i can trust you, right?


i am now the national senior manager


how about that.

guess where i am today

it is hot, and humid. schools here don't start until next week, so as not to conflict with the state fair. i have been called ma'am more times than i care to count. i am the only one in a black suit. instead of wine tastings, they do bourbon tastings. ah ha! that one should have clued you right in.

so here i am in louisville (that's pronounced loovul, only it's all one syllable). i have seen a lots of bugs although fortunately only one of them has landed on me. i got a keychain in my hotel room that is a bottle-opening pink pony with 'kentucky' written on the side. people here refer the area as kentuckiana, since we are so close to the neighboring state.

traveling for work is ok, there is free hbo in my room as well as yummy-smelling lotion, and we are being wined (bourboned?) and dined very nicely, apparently it is a big deal to have people from national come in for a visit.

kentucky is the bluegrass state, so i'll leave you with these parting words:

poa pratensis

song for the day

clearing webs from the hovel
a blistered hand on the handle of a shovel
i've been digging too deep
i always do
i see my face on the surface
i look a lot like narcissus
a dark abyss of an emptiness
standing on the edge of a drowning blue

i look behind my ears for the green
and even my sweat smells clean
glare off the white hurts my eyes
i gotta get out of bed
get a hammer and a nail
learn how to use my hands
not just my head
i think myself in a jail
now i know a refuge never grows
from a chin in a hand
and a thoughtful pose
gotta tend the earth
if you want a rose

i had a lot of good intentions
sit around for fifty years
and then collect a pension
started seeing the road to hell
and just where it starts
but my life is more than a vision
the sweetest part is acting
after making a decision
started seeing the whole
as a sum of its parts

and i look behind my ears for the green
and even my sweat smells clean
glare off the white hurts my eyes
gotta get out of bed
get a hammer and a nail
learn how to use my hands
not just my head
i think myself in a jail
now i know a refuge never grows
from a chin in a hand
and a thoughtful pose
gotta tend the earth
if you want a rose

my life is part of the global life
i'd found myself becoming more immobile
when i'd think a little girl in the world
can't do anything
a distant nation my community
and a street person my responsibility
if i have a care in the world
i have a gift to bring

i look behind my ears for the green
even my sweat smells clean
glare off the white hurts my eyes
i gotta get out of bed
get a hammer and a nail
learn how to use my hands
not just my head
i think myself in a jail
now i know a refuge never grows
from a chin in a hand
and a thoughtful pose
gotta tend the earth
if you want a rose

- indigo girls

grape

once when i was younger (10? 12?) i found bag of grape jolly ranchers for sale at some ridiculously low price (maybe 25 cents?). (in retrospect i imagine they had probably expired). but i bought them. it was a first for me, to have an entire bag of candy, all to myself. i didn't have to share it, or eat only one piece at a time. i may not have even told my parents i had it- it was my secret.

anyway, i think about this occasionally. such as today, when there is a big bowl of jolly ranchers in the break room, and i rummage through it, and take the two remaining grape ones.

it makes me happy.

grief

the mother of my dear friend passed away today.

it's not supposed to be like this.



how long, oh Lord?

one thing i hate

is when someone is cruel to someone i love.


it fills me with a deep, black, primal rage.

this just in

Salem Area Amateur Radio Association
Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance
South African Air Rifle Association


i'm not sure how i feel about this.

miss me?

well hello there, dear readers, if in fact any of you still exist... it's been a while. a good while. by which i mean both that the while in terms of length has been significant, and that the while i have been away, has been good.

lemme 'splain. no, there is too much. lemme sum up.

Fabulous Mediterranean Vacation was, as hoped, fabulous. for example:

it really was like that. only you don't get a good idea of the water, which was crystal blue...

ok so the basic idea was, sail, stop at an island and swim, lunch, sail, find an island to anchor at for the night, borrel on board followed by dinner out or cooked in the galley, late nights, sleep on board, wake up, sail... repeat x8. our skipper and first mate were top-notch, and it was fun to learn a thing or two about hoisting and furling and the jib and the spinnaker and what have you. whatever have you. sailing was followed by several days in athens, just suomies and me, and again, fabulous. sleep late, see some sights, drink lots of coffee, dinner at 10 or later...

we returned to st louis, the next day the movers came and away went our things... and then away went us. let me pause just for a moment to tell you just how good (i mean, good. we're talking cherry garcia good) it is to have someone else pack you stuff. i sat on the couch and watched other people wrap all of my glasses and pack my books and my socks and my jar of pennies and my kleenex... it was amazing. then when we got here, it was like christmas opening all of the boxes. a bit of a random christmas, mind you (why is the cat food packed in with the toothpaste?), but christmas nonetheless.

so after an eventful journey west across the plains (do you really want to know why it was eventful? it involves kitty, and copious amounts of fluids...), we arrived at the pink house, which i love. fortunately it is only pink on the outside, inside it is a cool pale green, which goes nicely with my plants inside and my hedge and trees outside.

work is great (did i mention i have my own office?) and they seem to think i am worth my salt (what does that even mean?), and i get to go to philly next week.

soumies is also doing well, thanks for asking, he is working a lot but so far it has been ok. his colleagues are nice, which is a bonus.

i have a million stories to tell (the bomb threat at our hotel in athens, my herb garden, my imminent car purchase...) but i'm tired. so i leave it all to your imagination. and wish you a good night.