Who Do You Call?

This week has been one crisis after another at work. Too bad I seem to be the only one in the place that doesn’t stand in the middle of the hall and throw their hands up and scream “oh no”. Yep, I really witnessed three of our managers perform this move this week.

I am looking for a way to change the phone on my desk a red one since it has become the crisis hotline. I apparently have been successful in coming up with unique solutions to these crises and now I have a new roll and expectation; “If it is wrong call Karen, she’ll figure it out.”

Maybe I should look at getting a cape that I can wear as I dash off to the next meeting to fix a crisis. ‘Have no fear Karen is here!’

Relationship Choices

Earlier this week I wrote about attending our son’s wedding. In it I mentioned that he is my step-son. My husband was previously married and he had two sons with his first wife or his ex however you want to phrase it. I met Laura in the stands on a Friday night at a high school football game that our oldest son was playing in when Kyle and I were dating. At the time Kyle and Laura had been separated for a few years. Kyle and I talked about me meeting Laura and I told him that because he and Laura had children together and that they both would want to be part of their sons important moments, like a wedding, we needed to build a relationship with Laura so that the boys did not have to choose between their mom and dad.

Over the years we have come to a level in our relationship were we are friends. No not bosom buddies, but when we are together, Laura and Cory, Kyle and I, we have fun and enjoy being around each other. This is nice for us but can cause quite a stir to those around us that know the Kyle and Laura are exes. Even the families don’t quite understand it. I guess maybe they haven’t come to the level of forgiveness and healing that Kyle has.

It is often fun to observe others when they see Laura and I interact. Take for example this past winter when we all attended Kyle’s father memorial service. I was standing down in front of the church when Laura entered. She immediately walked up to me and the two of us greeted each other with a hug. You could hear a collective gasp from the first two rows of the church making it hard not to laugh out loud.. Then again at the wedding, Laura and I worked side by side, helped each other get ready and then celebrated our son’s wedding.

Laura and I respect each other’s rolls. She will always be the boys’ mom and I am their father’s wife. Laura knows that I love the boys and they know that too and I only want the best for them.

Laura and I made a choice to not create an issue over the past and that choice has been positive for everyone involved.

Go Ahead Get Dirty

How many times do we stop ourselves from having fun because we might get dirty? How many times do we stop ourselves from having fun because we worry about what others might think? How many times do we stop ourselves from having fun because we are the grownup?

I’m so glad that there are children in my life that don’t care about those things and are free. I for one think it is time for some fun and time to just go play in the dirt.

Running On Empty

By the time I got home tonight, I was running on empty, not only in my van but my body as well. Today at 9am I was hit with a problem at work that prevented us from entering orders for revenue and it is coming on the end of the quarter. If there is one thing that gets the executives really excited it is when you mess with end of the quarter revenue. I worked on this problem from 9am until 4:10pm none stop. At 4:15 I left for the day telling everyone I was going to lunch. Yep I worked right through lunch, as I said I was running on empty.

With my van there is this little red light that comes on and a warning bell that rings every so often if you choose to ignore it. I myself try not to travel too far when that little bell rings the first time. I still haven’t quite figured how far I can stretch it on this vehicle. There is one thing that I have only done once in the 35 years I have been driving, is run out of gas on the side of the road and hopefully in the next 35 years it won’t happen again.

Now for my physical body there are many indicators that I my tank is running low, hunger pangs, getting a little low on energy and becoming irritable. Too bad I don’t pay as much attention to those indicators as well as I do in my body. More than once I have ‘run out of gas’ and it is not a pretty sight.

I came home to a nice dinner and will get good nights sleep and have the tank filled and ready for tomorrow.

Here is the happy couple and I mean truly happy couple. Since these two have started dating there has been a significant change in our son. He has become a man that has a purpose and it isn’t himself. He has become a man that thinks about the consequences of his actions. He has become a man that not only looks like his father but is taking on more and more of his fathers good qualities of caring deeply and loving freely. He is a man that is making both sets of parents very happy.

Highlights of the weekend:

Friday - Rehearsal:
Katelynn the bride’s daughter fell off on a playground on Thursday and fractured her arm. Try keeping a six year old from running around while the adults are decorating and setting stuff up. Being an outdoor wedding and lots of work to do to get set up, we had the rehearsal dinner on site and grilled steaks and shrimp for all.

Saturday – Wedding Day:

All along we had been praying that it would not rain during the wedding or the reception. So of course 45 minutes before the wedding it rains and not just a little. 15 minutes before the wedding is to start and just after we get tent up over where everyone is to sit the rain stops. We left the tents up.

Our son is standing off to the side behind some trees to keep from seeing his bride. The crowd is seated; all of the parents are seated in the front row. There we are the grooms step dad, the mom, the dad, and me the step mom. I look over and see our son looking like he would hyperventilate. I lean over to his mom and ask her what she thinks he would do if we all stood up and waved. She said lets do it and counted to three. Up we went; the crowd behind us laughed and he got this great big smile on his face and relaxed.

The wedding went off without a hitch and the roast pig was done to perfection.

For all of the planning, all of the preparation, all of the running around, at the end of the day all that mattered was that Kyle Lee and Crystal were married.

Oh No!!!!

Ok it has been a busy weekend because our son got married on Saturday. The good thing about a son getting married there isn’t much with the actual wedding that we had to worry about. All I had to do was worry about what I would wear. Seems like it should be pretty easy right. First I needed to find something that I could wear flat shoes with because I am still healing from foot surgery, second I needed to where pants because I would be needing to wrestle my mom around in her wheelchair, third it needed to be something that was layered because the wedding was outdoors and not starting until 6pm and finally my husband would be in a Tux and I being the step mom didn’t want to be over dressed. No pressure there right?

Last Wednesday afternoon I had an appointment scheduled for something else that would put me next door to one of the malls in the area so I figured I would stop in there and find something. I called in the troops (a friend to help me pick out something appropriate) and we spent a few hours trying on stuff and finally settled on a top and jacket that I would wear with my dress black pants. Yahoo, that task out of the way once I picked up my black pants already at the cleaners on Thursday morning.

Thursday evening I get my dry cleaning home and decided to try on the new outfit just to make sure. I pull the black pants off of the hanger and stick one leg in and notice immediately that something is wrong. I only have them part of the way on and already the bottom hem is mid calf. I pull them off only to find that these are not my pants. “Not my pants!” Sure enough the pants that I brought home from the cleaners were not mine. They were capri length and three sized too small.

Friday morning I stop by the dry cleaners and they don’t have my pants. Finding black pants wouldn’t be a problem for a normal person but since I have a 35-inch inseam it is a major undertaking to find pants to fit that are long enough. I leave work at 11am and head back to the mall for panic shopping.

After three or four stores I head to Nordstrom’s and find this nice woman that helped me pick out an outfit that met all of the criteria and I really liked it and in fact I would probably use the pieces in my work wardrobe as well. I get to the checkout and the total comes to $800 I tried not to fall over as I handed her my credit card. I collected up my bags and headed back to a few stores to see if I could replace a couple of the high priced pieces with something cheaper but looked similar.

Wedding out fit $150, Nordstrom Sales Woman = Priceless.

Do I Dare?

I am stirred up inside, I am having a hard time keeping a focus. As I try and write this I struggle to find words. I am in a situation that could bring me much pleasure and yet the outcome is totally out of my control. I wish I could share the details of the situation but not at this time. God supplies all my needs, but what do I do with the wants?

One of my own issues is that I tend to not ask for more than I need. I don’t allow myself to ask for the big things or to dream too big in some areas. Is it a lack of faith, I have seen God provide more than I could ever think I would want? Is it not wanting to walk out of God’s will, in my past God has gone out of His way to stop me from doing something out of His will, see my post One Man about on Tiananmen Square from August 8th. Is it lack of vision, I have a vision for Mexico that is larger than life and I have no doubt that it will come to pass some day? So what is it?

Yesterday when I finished my part in this situation, though tears I sent a text to a friend where I wrote that I was in trouble. I so want this that if I don’t get it I will be crushed. The issue I fight is the fear of disappointment. There have been too many times in my past have I wanted something for myself that has turned it to a deep disappointment.

God has not given me a spirit of fear and He will never disappoint me, but that is my issue. So Lord I ask today in faith, lacking fear that Your desire is to bless me beyond what I could ever hope or dream of. I will receive this as Your gift to me.

Jigsaw Puzzles

One of the things my family enjoys is doing Jigsaw puzzles. It was amazing to me just how much of the extended family also does them. A few weeks ago when I took my mother to Michigan we had a little family reunion. As we were waiting for everyone to arrive my mother was sitting at a card table working on a puzzle. As members of the family; cousins, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, friends, arrived, they stopped at the table and visited with my mom and put a few pieces in before going out onto the deck and greeting everyone else. At one point I was going to take the puzzle away, but everyone else said to leave it up because they all wanted to see it done. Finally after a few hours the puzzle was complete, my mom moved away from the table and began to socialize with the rest of the family.

Each Christmas there was always a jigsaw puzzle under the tree. Once Christmas dinner was over and the dishes put away, the dinning room table became the puzzle table. As we grew older the puzzles became harder and larger. On more than one occasion when I was my sister and I would stay up all night finishing the puzzle, even after she was married and her husband would go home to bed leaving her there knowing she wouldn’t stop until it was done.

It is the challenge of the puzzle and then seeing the progress that keeps me doing them. Now I have to be selective when I start a puzzle because too many other things don’t get done until I finish the puzzle and if I leave one set up overnight the cat tends to take some of the pieces. I wonder if she is just trying to take one so she can say she finished it like my dad would do when we were growing up. He never sat at the table with us to work on the puzzle but at some point he would take a piece when no one was looking and put it in his pocket. At the end we would all be looking around for that one last piece and he would walk over and say he finished the puzzle for us.

That last piece of the puzzle was the easiest to put in, but without all of the other pieces being placed before it, it meant nothing. Like the pieces of our lives each piece may not mean much until the end, but without just one we are incomplete.

Unexpected Adventure II

So today was another one in a series of unexpected adventures. My day started out real early in that I was in Michigan to escort my mother home from my sisters where she has been for the last three weeks. Michigan is 3 hours ahead of Washington in time so I was up at 3AM Seattle time. That is where the adventure starts.

We had no problem in the airport and easily got loaded onto the aircraft. Northwest Airlines is the only Airline I know of that has “Handicap” seating in the aircraft. These are seats near the door and they have the ability for the seats near them to fold flat and the aisle arms to go up making it easy to get someone that is unable to stand/walk from an aisle chair into the airplane seats.

Four hours and 20 minutes later we land in Seattle and taxi up to the gate. Because they need to bring a specially designed wheelchair onto the plane to get my mom off of it we get to wait until everyone else is off the plane before we can get off. This time we are waiting and waiting, the new crew for the next flight for this aircraft comes on, the cleaning crew comes on and cleans the plane and we are waiting and waiting.

Finally the ‘check-in’ crew came and checks on us and I explain that I need an aisle chair to get her off. The folks from operations are supposed to come and get my mother off we are told but no one is around. Finally the check-in lady brings the chair to me and asks if I know how to do it. Finally, I get my mom into the aisle chair and off the plan onto the jet way. I look around and my mother’s wheelchair that had been sitting on the jet way earlier, while we were waiting, is not there. Yep, they lost my mothers wheelchair. Just then the operations guy shows up with one of the airport wheelchairs so I get her off of the jet way so that they can load the next flight and get that plane out of there. As we come up the ramp I see a man in a wheelchair waiting for us to get off so he can be boarded. I look at his chair to make sure it is not my mothers and it wasn’t.

We stand off at the side as I try and explain that I have my own wheelchair and want to know where it is, I cannot leave without it. I am working hard not to ‘go postal’ and get my self arrested at the airport that would be a Federal Offense. There are numerous folks that come up to us and trying to take the airport chair from us. Remember my mother is unable to walk and is sitting in the wheelchair. I won’t move until I know where my wheelchair is. 30 minutes later they bring up this ‘personal’ wheelchair to us. Guess what it isn’t ours, I look at the tag and it is from the guy that had just got on the plane we got off of. They were trying to get me to take that wheelchair telling me someone else must have taken mine and left this one. I told them that they needed to hurry and get that chair on that plane before it took off and that man was in the same situation we were in when he got to his destination.

Just as I finish telling them to put that chair on that plane a Northwest agent comes over and ask us about the chair. Apparently our chair was in the lost and found in the baggage claim area. Off we go to baggage claim and find the wheelchair.

How that chair ended up down in baggage claim is anyone’s guess; the baggage folks just took it there instead of putting it on the jet way except I saw it on the jet way. Maybe someone else took it to help someone down to baggage claim and realized it wasn’t one of the airport chairs. Who knows?

I get my mother transferred from the airport wheelchair into her own and we are ready to find her checked bags and a porter to help us get everything out to the parking garage and into the van. Guess what no porter. I finally make it out to the van, get everyone loaded and we get on our way; the end of another adventure with my mother.

I guess the moral to this story is that my mother and I are just lucky to have survived another adventure.

sandbars

Sitting looking out the slider watching one of the weekend warriors that drove by and grounded his boat on a sandbar. The more he reved his motor, the more he became stuck. Finally my sister went out and gave him directions on where the deeper water was and he got out of the boat and pulled it free.

Sometimes we approach sandbars and instead of going back to the deeper channels we just rev our engines and become more lodged in the muck.

Smooth Move Award

I am not a rookie air travler. I have flown hundreds of thousands of miles, some years I fly over a 100,000 in a single year. I know what it takes. Yes I don't travel that much right now but really what was I thinking. I get the smooth move award for today.

I get up this morning and pack, leave work early to give myself plenty of time to catch my flight at 6:15pm. I arrive at the airport at 4pm check my wallet and have no drivers liscence.

I called my husband, he found my ID and got to the airport in rush hour traffic in just under 90 minutes. He is my hero, I made my flight with time to spare.

How Honest Should You Be?

Jack Nicholson’s character in the movie A Few Good Men states the classic line, “You want the truth, you can’t handle the truth.” Is there ever a time when being honest or telling the truth a bad thing? How honest should you be?

I purpose to be honest in everything to do. I try not to miss lead anyone on who I am, what I can do or where I’ve been. I have found that not everyone wants honesty or knows how to handle the truth. How about the commercial where a woman ask her husband the classic question, “Do I look fat in these?” and the husband quickly crams a candy bar in his mouth so that she cannot understand his answer. Yesterday I had one of those moments too bad it wasn’t a commercial.

I was meeting with my boss and going over a few things that I had been working on and he commented on how easily I was getting the tasks organized. I reminded him that just because this company had no experience in this area, I had been through this type of situation before in previous companies. He then proceeded to tell me how he wanted me to help him develop a group around what I was doing to expand the rolls and responsibilities. Then finally he asked me, “Do you like your job?”

In nano-seconds multiple thoughts flashed through my brain.
Here is the man who is my boss, a key VP in the company and has the ability to fire me on the spot. How honest should I be?
This job was one that was created only after the job I was hired for was eliminated. My boss was instrumental in making this position available for me. How honest should I be?
I had an option to take this position or a 2 week salary package and be without an income, knowing that it took me 4 months on unemployment to find a job at this company. How honest should I be?
Knowing that for the last two months I have been interviewing with other companies looking for a new job more suited to my skill set because I don’t ‘fit’ with my current company any longer. How honest should I be?

When is honesty not the best policy, for me honesty is always right, it is all in the presentation.



My answer was, “No, I don’t see this position as something that is a fit for me.”

Meetings, AUGH!!!!!!

Ok is this right or is it right? In most companies meetings are an important vehicle. They are so common and pervasive in organizations, however, that many take them for granted and forget that, unless properly planned and executed, meetings can be a terrible waste of precious resources.

As I wrote a while back I have a new position at work. The position itself is not that challenging because I did the same type of task on a much larger scale for years at previous companies. The bigger issue is that there are meetings just for the sake of meetings. Since taking this position I spend at least 25 hours each week in meetings, yep that is over half of the time. This has been one of those weeks and it isn’t getting better. I have one hour tomorrow that is not booked with meetings, so much for being productive.

It’s a good thing that I can multi-task and can do real work while sitting in unproductive meetings. Even with that I don’t know if there is anything more frustrating.

Busy Day

It must have been a busy day today. First here it is after 4pm and I'm just getting around to making a post and second I ended up with a bunch of extra pens on my desk. This is a pictue of the pens I found as I powered down my computer and cleaned up for the day. There were none of them there at the beginning of the day.

So the question I have is where did they all come from?

TV Drama

Yesterday I took some down time; time to just do “nothing”. I didn’t blog, I didn’t email, and I didn’t putter around the house. Yep I just sat in front to the TV for a while. First I watched the end of the golf championship. Then I flipped through the channels and ended up watching Survivorman and Ice Road Truckers. My Favorite shows to watch these days are the new TV Dramas; shows like Survivorman, Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Trucker. I enjoy watching and getting to know the characters. I’m not into other types of TV Dramas; I guess I like the real ones. Yes I know that before I get to view the footage that the producers and editors have put a twist on them to make them more entertaining, but I guess to me that is better than watching something like Desperate Housewives.

Maybe I’m just different, no wait, I know I am different, just ask Kyle. Maybe it is just that inherent belief that it will all turn out good. By watching other people ‘survive’ there is hope that I too will survive. It is a lot like hearing others peoples testimonies it helps build our faith.

Zealous Overgrowth

Here is a shot of one of my poor rose bushes. It is one of two miniatures that I planted last summer out in the front of the house. Both of them grew to be about 14 inches tall and bloomed all summer last summer. This year they both were blooming and were doing real good until the bushes next to them took off. Shame on me, I got too busy in July and didn’t get the bushes pruned back before they flowered. Once they did flower the bushes grew to be about twice the size they were and totally engulfed the rose bushes. Today I cut back the bushes drastically. Now you see the results, the roses have lost all their blooms and most of their leaves. Hopefully there will be enough summer left for the roses to recover. Next spring, if not this fall, the bushes are history. They are really nice bushes but I noticed a few weeks ago that there are the same bushes where I work and they were over 8 ft tall. I really don’t want an eight foot hedge at my front porch.

Both the bushes and the roses were healthy, just one of them was able to grow a whole lot faster than the other one and took up all the room and sunlight that they both needed. Just like the roses we all can’t grow at the same space and if we do grow fast we might just take over where we don’t belong. We all need to watch out that we don’t get too over zealous and outgrow where we are planted.

Comfort Food

So here is my comfort food:

Phad Thai – (Five Star) and a McDonald’s Ice Tea.

Here in Canyon Park there is the great Thai restaurant call D’Thai that serves the best Thai food I have ever eaten. I have them programmed into my phone and have it timed that I call them from my desk and by the time I get there they are putting it in the bag for me to bring back. I bring it back so that the chili’s have a chance to soak and make it spicier.

As for McDonald’s Ice Tea, I don’t know what mix they use but I will stop every chance I get just to get one. Again there is a McDonalds very near work and some afternoon’s I will make a run down just for the Iced Tea.

So what is your comfort food?

Pizza Personality

Cheese Pizza

Traditional and comforting. You focus on living a quality life. You're not easily impressed with novelty. Yet, you easily impress others.

What's" Your Pizza Personality?

Success

"To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intellingent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one's self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - this is to have succeeded." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

One Man

Today the headline reads: Beijing begins 1-year countdown to Summer Olympics with dancers, fireworks in Tiananmen Square and the image that goes with it is the one posted above. When I hear the word Tiananmen Square I remember the image from back in 1989 that is posted below.

A small, unexceptional figure in slacks and white shirt, carrying what looks to be his shopping, posts himself before an approaching tank, with a line of 17 more tanks behind it. The tank swerves right; he, to block it, moves left. The tank swerves left; he moves right. Nobody knows what happened to him even one hour after his moment in the world's living rooms. But the man who stood before a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square — June 5, 1989 — was seen in his moment of self-transcendence by more people than ever laid eyes on Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and James Joyce combined.

For seven weeks, though, in the late spring of 1989 — the modern year of revolutions — the Chinese people took back the square, first a few workers and students and teachers and soldiers, then more and more, until more than 1 million had assembled there. Then, in the dark early hours of June 4, the government struck back, sending tanks from all directions toward Tiananmen Square and killing hundreds of workers and students and doctors and children, many later found shot in the back.

A lasting image in my mind and heart, a forever reminder of the day that God told me ‘No’. You see just a year earlier in 1988 I had turned down an opportunity to teach engineering in China and I would have probably been right in the midst of the events of Tiananmen Square.

One person can change the world.

Gumby Gets a New Life

Any Gumby lovers out there? To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the green rubbery guy, Genius Products and Classic Media have announced the release of Gumby Essentials on DVD, a collection of popular TV episodes from the 1950s, '60s and '80s series, personally selected by Gumby creator Art Clokey. Joe Clokey, Art's son, has used the original film to digitally re-master each episode. Gumby Essentials will be available Sept. 4.

Extreme heat, humidity blanket nation - USATODAY.com*

I have just put my extra sweater on because it is cold in the office today because the air-conditioning is still working even though the expected high for today is in the upper 60s. I have determined I am in the wrong business. I either need to go in to writing headlines for USA today or become a weather forecaster; in either case I would enjoy a great career as a fiction writer.

The headline writers are only trying to grab your attention there is no need to be telling the truth. So only a 1/3rd of the nation is warm and humid, so much for truth in journalism. How much of the rest of what is in USA today is expounded on, something to think about.

Then there is the weather forecaster; I wish I only had to be right 25% of the time in my job to be successful. I understand that it is a little harder to do extended forecast out here on the west coast, but what is really amazing is how often the meteorologist in the middle of the country are when they can see the weather coming for days.

Oh well I guess I will stay with being a technologist and work on writing fiction as a hobby.

Changing Technology

Yesterday I purchased a new 80G external hard drive to use for backing up my laptop and Kyle’s computer. As I am writing almost every day and taking more and more pictures I have too much data that is irreplaceable and will no longer fit on the 5G PCMCIA drive I was using.

I found two things very interesting with this hard drive: 1) the box was rather large and 2) the actual drive was rather small. Being a person that works in marketing the box is big because in our culture if the package was only as big as necessary there wouldn’t be enough room for branding and other marketing info and we as consumers would think that it wasn’t valuable enough. That’s right even in our “Green” culture we still need the big box to make us feel like we are getting value for our money.

As for how small the actual drive is it is not much bigger than a cassette tape. The first computer I worked on was the size of a small house and I would drive to the school administration building while in High School to be able to use it once a week. I would have to punch cards for each line of the code to run any program. Heaven forbid that you dropped the stack of cards because it could takes hours or even days to get them back in order and you definitely didn’t want to get one wet or bent. A simple program usually took hours to run and you would know that a card was out of order until you ran it. The first year in college my ‘computer’ was a slide rule and slide rule class was mandatory for anyone in engineering. My first calculator (required for my 2nd year in college) cost almost $200 and was really special because it had 5 functions; add, subtract, multiply, divide and do percentages. Yesterday while in staples they were selling an equivalent for under $2. This new 80G hard drive cost less than $2 per Gigabit.

Even though I am a technologist and work with leading edge and breakthrough technology every day, I still am amazed at the changes I have seen. Now I am starting to sound like my grandmother used to, oh wait, I am a grandmother.

The Right Tools

Today as I was making treats for some nephews I got to thinking about how you could have the perfect recipe and without the right tools it would be a disaster. Part of why I am so good at what I do for a living is that I am always trying to figure out an easier or better way of doing things. I have the whole Deviled Egg making process down to under an hour for a batch of 18 eggs with the help of a spoon, a food processor and a Ziploc bag. Now all I need to do is figure out how to shell the eggs faster and I have it made.

Imagine making a cake without an oven or a building a house without a hammer. I suppose there are ways to overcome that lack of the right tools, but I also know that it would just take longer and probably not be as good in the end. The right tools not only make the job easier, but the make the quality of the end product all that much better.

So here’s the question, why do we think we can become a better person without the using the right tools. God’s recipe is for us to have a personal relationship with Jesus, pray, read the Bible and attend a local church. Sure we can skip things like reading the bible or going to church and just watching televangelists but is that really the right tool?

So as I put the tools I used in the dishwasher to be ready for the next batch, ask yourself are you using the right tools?

Let’s Do Lunch

I just had a pleasant surprise; my husband called and said he would like to meet me for lunch today. I have to admit I have had a hard week, one of those that if I put it to music it would make a great country song and going out to lunch just made up for most of it, I love going out to lunch.

Kyle and I eat dinner together most nights but going out to lunch is different. Even on the weekends when we have nothing else to do we will just ‘go to lunch’. Then on Sunday’s after church we usually go ‘to lunch’ with friends. When I know someone is available I try and make lunch dates with them.

It is not about the food, I usually bring my lunch to work and because Kyle is a really good cook so the leftovers are pretty good. It is not about getting a break in the day, because I take an hour for lunch. It is not about going out, if I am not meeting someone I prefer not to go out at lunchtime. I enjoy the time quiet at my desk and doing on-line crossword puzzles and checking up on my blog reading.

“Doing Lunch” is about relationship building, yes even with my husband. It is a chance for some time that is specifically set aside and it is more casual. When I do lunch I like a quiet atmosphere just so I can have conversation with whom ever I am with.

So let me know when and where we can meet and I would love to have lunch.

A Wave

In the last few days I have noticed waves. No not the kind that of wave that is in the ocean or a lake even though I had the pleasure of riding over a few last week at my sisters, but the hand gesture we use for a multitude of purposes.

First there is the frantic wave you use to try and get someone’s attention. On the aircraft last week I wanted to get the flight attendants attention without being too obnoxious and tried waving at her instead of pressing the call button. She was oblivious, now maybe it was the fact that on both flights last week the flight attendants were all old enough to retire or maybe she just didn’t care. Then of course there is the times when I was sitting in traffic backed up to make a left turn and I saw friends coming down the road in the opposite direction and I hung out the window and waving trying to get their attention as they drove by. Sorry to say I was only successful one out of three tries.

Another wave is the subtle wave that motorcyclist use as they pass each other. Now it wouldn’t be cool if you actually stuck your hand up in the air, no it is one where they pull their left hand off of the handle bars, drop it down straight at their side and then slightly lift the hand as the other rider going in the opposite direction does the same.

Or how about the goof ball in the car in front of you that has just cut you off from three lanes over and they wave. Now is that wave in appreciation for you not running into them when they make an airhead move or is it really not appreciation but a wave of ‘oh I really screwed up’?

One that makes me laugh is the guy that merges into traffic and then rolls down his window sticks out waves. Ok, is it just because I learned to drive in Michigan where I will admit we are much more aggressive drivers, but isn’t it the law that you are suppose to allow cars to merge at an on-ramp?

Or how about the wave you have to give the kids as you leave its all about ‘bye bye’ and if you forget you may find yourself returning just to get that wave in.

A wave used to be pretty commonplace in our culture; it was a sign of recognition and greeting. I challenge you to try and wave at 10 people today. See if they return that wave or they look at you like your nuts. Are you brave enough to try it?

Production Line Lives

Last night as I’m driving home from work, I am only partially paying attention going through many things in my mind, when I pull up behind this pickup truck at a traffic light. As I approach something moving on the trailer hitch catches my eye. At first I’m not sure what this thing wagging back and forth is but as I get closer I see that it is a fish. Yep this fake bass is mounted where the hitch ball would be and it is plugged into the trailer outlet. Whenever the driver steps on the brakes this the tail on this thing wags and the eyes light up. I didn’t think much of it until I was along side of it again at the next light so I snapped this picture with my phone.

This has got me to thinking about the statements we make when we customize our ‘stuff’. Look at what we do to our production line lives to make us appear different. We get our motorcycles painted or add louder pipes. We apply tinting and stickers to our cars. How about the time we spend building a wardrobe or coming up with a new hairstyle. It’s all about making us different from everybody else, yet when we are different we want to be like everyone else. We go out and buy a motorcycle because everyone else has. We buy the latest fashion to fit in.

It’s all about being a part of something bigger than our selves and yet belonging to something bigger than our selves. Something to think about, wouldn’t you agree.

What Do You Call A Baby Swan?

At my sister's house there are a number of mating Swans. I was standing on the dock when this Pen and her Cygnet's swam over and enjoyed a little nibble on the seaweed. Yep, that's what you call a baby swan, a Cygnet. Now I have learned a new word.