i'm walkin', yes, indeed

Today has been marvelous! What a great day to be 18 again!
Sunny, warm, with a hair-ruffling breeze - who could ask for anything more? Truly!
Add several outings with friends and that made today one of those to post on the refrigerator so you can smile about it later.
To top it all off, I woke with my 18-years-old mental image firmly in place (regardless of gravity-induced sag of portions of the physical self). You know what I mean, right? Hopeful, bright, the WORLD is wide open!!!
Oh, YES!!!
I have so loved today and all parts of it!!!

fortune cookie

"Be good to a coworker."
Truly? THAT is the message in my fortune cookie???
Okay, let's give it a thought and see if the cookie has a clue. It was a Wednesday evening and I'd been able to go to my favorite place - you know which one! - and had grabbed a dessert with a message on my way out the door.
I had arrived to another engagement when I read the message - too dark in the car to even try to read it at a stoplight - and I didn't have time to really ponder it. Nor did I need time. Just about the same instant that I thought "what does it mean, if anything?" the response popped in. Go check on the cat owner.
After I returned home, I did just that, to an extent. I logged into fb and went to the page of the cat owner. Hmmm, nothing more about the cat, nothing more about anything, no entries for several days. Okay, that doesn't prove anything one way or the other, times are very hectic at this point in a semester. I made a mental note to check in, physically, the next day to see how things were faring. Maybe the cookie DID know something, maybe not. It's JUST a cookie.
Still, I've had enough experience with THESE dessert items to try to keep an open mind.
And the cookie was right. The cat owner's elderly cat had died. I heard the story of the cat's last few days and the continuing story of the remaining cats and the loss felt by the owner. I heard tales of the cat's personality, his little quirks and habits. I heard that THIS moment belonged to that ONE cat, not to the others.
"Be good to a coworker."
Thanks. I'll try to pay better attention so I don't need messages from a cookie to go see a friend.

i'm just waiting on a friend

I thought I would write something new today, to mark the time, but I think I would rather repost one of my old blogs. Please bear with me...
18 years. That's the time it takes to raise a child from infancy and send them out on their own into the big blue yonder. That's how long Sam Johnson was in my life. We met in 1991, with him being part, if not the ringleader, of the Underground Savannah posse that included my soon-to-be husband, Jeff. They, and Bobby Ruggiero and Andy Pena, had a friendship that was a brotherhood. It was tight. Even when they disagreed with something one of them did or said, it just didn't matter. They were a team, with an irreverent television show, the radio world, the Savannah nightlife and culture. I could tell these guys were in it for the duration, no one was getting out alive, I tell ya!

And so, now one of them has gotten out of this band of brothers from other mothers. Sam's big ol' heart, after enduring five years of dialysis, just gave out on him on Sunday. He'd had a great weekend, including zany fortune cookie messages. That's right, plural. His original fortune cookie told him: A nice cake is waiting for you. Of course, he led into the reading of it the usual way, slowly releasing the message, looking it over and announcing "Boom goes the dynamite!" "Yeah, right, what does it really say?" And with a puzzled look, he says "A nice cake is waiting for you." I laughed my self silly, even reading it myself and then laughing more. Whoever heard of such a thing??? He was so taken aback by the seemingly non-fortune that he requested a new cookie... and was graciously granted one after he told his tale. This second cookie told him "You have infinite wisdom and power." "Hey, man, that makes you a superhero!" That made him feel right as rain. I dropped him off at Steed's, then went home for the night.

Saturday, after almost seven hours in Beaufort with my terminally-ill daddy and his family, I came back to town and caught a nap before heading off to a retirement party for a colleague. Then, off I went to Steed's for some karaoke. Sam had called to say he took a cab there, but I had told him I would make sure he got home so he could hold on to his money. I had gone there that night intending to sing, but I just never did. I even had a list of songs in my car that I had planned to do.. but I didn't. I just absorbed the show. There was a birthday party going on for a husband of the Cumulus crowd, and they were a lively bunch. There were several of the regular Saturday night singers. Even Bob and his mom, also known to Sam as "Mom", were there for a rare visit from Midway. And Sam was on top of his game, handling all with his usual mix of aplomb and bravado. I totally enjoyed myself, even though I was just part of the audience this time around. I even snapped a fairly decent photograph (on my cellphone) of Sam with Bob and Mom when they were leaving. Apropos of absolutely nothing, I took the picture. I remember thinking, who knows when they'll all see each other again?

Finally, the end of the shift has arrived. Last call for alcohol, for songs, for hanging out at Steed's. Gina is about to fall over, her feet hurt so badly. She reminds Sam she had set aside a plate for him from the cookout earlier. She even saved him some cake. Pineapple upside-down cake. One of his favorites, one he had been thinking about lately. Nice cake. Using his phone, I took a shot of him with his "Nice cake", us grinning like fools about the in-joke. I even said to him, on the ride to his place in Garden City, that he should play those numbers on the back of that fortune. After all, how many fortune cookie messages are found to be true?? Yeah, that would be cool. So, at 2:30am, I drop him off at his place, with our "Love ya, girl" "Love you too, Sam" hanging in the air. I stay a moment, making sure he gets inside safely before I take my tired self home. And that was the last I saw of him. He tried at some point to forward the "Nice cake" picture from his cell to mine, but it didn't take. I figured I would have him resend it the next time we talked.

And now, he's to be buried on Saturday. 42 years old, gone already. So many future plans, all on hold now. He was very much looking forward to a family reunion in Orlando in December. He was even going to do the odious task of going through the big box of family photos his sister had and putting them in albums for the reunion. He was going to Dragon*Con again with myself and the Delongs. He was going to go through his blogs for the past five years and publish a book of the best of them, at the urging of his college professor, Dr. H. He was going to finish his paralegal degree from South University. He was going to do all these time-consuming projects and more... but time stopped for him.

I still don't believe he's really gone. I guess I'll have to accept it at Steed's when his hand isn't on the microphone, his voice isn't ringing through the speakers, his presence isn't all over the room.

going to Italy, ten years later

I realized last night that this is really happening.
I'm going to Italy again!!!
I leave less than a month from today!!!
Last night, at the school, there was a meeting for those of us who are going. I think the grand total is close to thirty. The Travel Abroad - oops! that should be Study Abroad! - program likes to make sure everyone is well prepared, as preparation is the key to maximum enjoyment.
I know, it sounds like I'm talking about safe sex, right?
But the key to having any kind of good time truly is preparation.
Well, I have my passport!
I have my bags mentally packed!
I have plenty of lactaid on hand!
And I am so excited I can hardly sit still any more.
Come on, May 13th!

boundaries

I have an issue with boundaries. I'm not talking about fences, or lines in the sand, or legal limits. No. Personal boundaries. Not mine, but those belonging to others.
I just have a little problem with coming off, sometimes, as a stalker. I don't intend to do so, it just happens, and it's been doing so for almost five years now. One of my best friends here pointed it out to me when I was in her face ALL THE TIME; she had the presence of mind to confront me about it. These days, I can usually catch myself doing it early on, and put a stop to it before the other person calls me on it.
Believe it or not, I'm shy by nature, except with those I know and love, those who know and love me. I'm most comfortable in a group or alone these days. My tendency is to do things solo, as it seems to take far too much effort most times to find someone who is willing and able to go out and about with very little notice or planning.
Once in a while, though, someone will pop up on my sensors. Something I hear or read will cause me to suddenly truly notice someone and I'll invite them to an event hosted by one of my groups, something safe. Then, next thing you know, I'm up in their grille constantly. Not physically, of course. Facebook and emails, mostly, as those are fairly non-confrontational avenues of communication. I can sense that I'm overloading their circuits, but I cannot seem to back off.
My hope is this: bringing the problem to my beach and tossing it out to sea will alleviate my sense of craziness. Maybe?

boys, boys, boys!

Tonight was good! I spent time with boys of summer, boys of science, and boys of Snow White, and we had SUCH fun!
The Sand Gnats have at last swarmed home for their first home game tonight. The weather had threatened rain and I had half-hoped it might, as I had other plans waiting in the wings - and, assuredly, rain did come during the game. My Boys of Summer were playing in front of a fairly large and loud crowd, but their opponents managed to score in their first at-bat. The rain came, delaying the game, then play resumed, but, as a friend pointed out to me, I just wasn't "feeling" it. So I left at the top of the third, almost 8 PM.
What fortune! I raced home, to be greeted enthusiastically by my boys of science on The Big Bang Theory. I had seen the promotional spots for the past week, announcing the visit of renowned physicist Stephen Hawking to the show, and I had lamented that I would have to wait for the episode to re-air as I would miss it. But I did not! Jolly good! I completely enjoyed the company of Howard and Bernadette, and Leonard and Penny, and Sheldon, and Raj - all nerds like me, even the cheesecake-slinging hopeful-actress!
What to do next??? In case you haven't noticed, I like trios, most particularly in my writing. So, I had two groups of boys, what to do about another? Well, it was officially too late to join my group of friends downtown, so I turned to my other love: cinema. Ah, the movies - I can almost always find what I need there. And so I did! I was in search of a tale involving a group of males, preferably a tale of mirth, and "Mirror Mirror" certainly delivered on all counts! A refashioning of the well-known story of Snow White and her seven dwarves, the movie was full of fresh humor and twists - and, it had a Bollywood-type ending! Splendid way to wrap up an evening, splendid, I say!