Enough Already!!!

I have a great detest for chain letters. When I was growing up, way before Internet – actually way before computers – people would slide a chain letter under our door. My family, very much into superstition, would panic. I was not made aware of how they handled the letter. Maybe at night they sneaked into other people’s houses and planted the letter in their dining room table, I have no idea.

As technology has made dramatic changes in our communication, there are no longer letters secretly left on your doorstep; that has been replaced by electronic mail.

Regardless of how it’s now delivered, it remains an annoyance. Although I seldom get an email that threatens me with misfortune if I don’t do as told, I get the zillion others that tell me “this email can not be deleted”, “don’t let the devil stop this” – how about my boss stopping me from using company email for chain letters? Or the typical “send this to 8 people in the next 4 minutes and you’ll receive this……” “Send it to 6 people and you will receive this” “Send it to 4 people and forget it, ain’t worth it”

Here is the thing, if I had 8 friends, I would like to keep them and not annoy them with my little chain email nonsense.

Besides, I don’t think God is sitting there with this laptop reading his yahoo email overlooking my good deeds and my ehmm….wrongdoings in exchange for my timely compliance of my chain emails.

I refuse to comply.

I never really understood why my family, so strong in their faith, would believe in so many superstitions. My faith should be enough to console my insecurities and my fears but in all honesty, although I refuse to do chain emails, I have my own share of superstitions of which most don’t make any sense. For instance, I will not receive a saltshaker in my hand…put it somewhere else where I can grab it but I won’t take it from you. Stupid, I know.

Anyway, the electric company has been working on the road where I run. Gotta make sure I avoid their ladder….

The Negotiator

I looked at my dog with sadness as my husband fed him pieces of meat. “You have to negotiate with life”, he said.

Porkchop is no longer eating his dog food. His legs don’t bend making it difficult and painful to walk to his dish. He spends most of his time lying down. “He wants to live so he has to negotiate”

I thought about the sympathy of this man for our dog and I also thought about his statement. How often we all must negotiate in life making the best of what we have, and not always getting what we need or want. How often we deal with unfortunate incidents and get through them. How often I have dealt with a loss and learned to appreciate what I have in the absence of the lost object, something I would not have done otherwise.

I am about to start another negotiation as yesterday my company announced the loss of their contract which in short means employment with them will soon end.

There will have to be a number of negotiations in order to survive the transition; a hold on a family vacation, and a cancellation on my weekend getaway; change of plans in getting a new car for the husband and a few other minor expenses that must be eliminated.

Whatever needs to be done will be done to get past this new curve ball. I can also choose the alternative; feel sorry for myself, complain about the unfairness of life, think of the “ifs” and kick myself for past decisions made but the end result would not get me through these times.

Perseverance, faith, networking and the desire to move forward will and in the long run it will be okay in spite of this or because of this.

I don’t necessarily believe that everything happens for a reason. There have been things in my life I never found a reason for and I wish they had not happened; I can’t say that life is better because they did happen. But getting through hurdles and difficulties has given me a better perspective on life. I have learned to appreciate what is and I don’t spend time mourning what is not.

Like my dog I have learned a valuable lesson, if nothing more, that I can always negotiate with life and within myself.

Dear Summer Visitor:

Dear Summer Visitor:

I am glad you are here. I feel honored that you choose to spend your summers with us and out of all the places in the East Coast, you choose us.

I enjoy having you. The roads are empty without you and some stores even close in your absence. That’s how important you are to us. Others, like Walmart, look forward to your return. You increase their sales and make shopping a bit difficult for us in the process but that’s okay, I don’t really shop there much. You visit our gym and at times have forced me off the treadmill where I'm doing my speed work so you can walk. That's okay, you pay membership too.

When you walk on our roads, I slow down and smile and I move to the other side to allow you to take most of the road. When I run on weekends, I share the road with you. It would be nice if you smiled, waived back or even nodded. Anything to let me know you are as glad to see me as I am to see you. Maybe you are not glad to see me but I live here, these are my roads and we gladly share them with you.

There are a couple of things I want to point out. Our traffic rules are the same as they are anywhere else. Red light means you stop. It is not okay to pass me on the left on a double line. We do have designated parking areas where you can drop off all 12 kids of yours. It is not safe to do it in the middle of our busy avenue, not when you are double parking and then giving them instructions that take another 5 minutes.

Our speed limit means you drive at that speed – some of us go faster but it is okay if you don’t want to. We would appreciate it though if you did not drop into the single digits.

Please carry out your conversations with your friends in the privacy of your home, or establishment. Please do not do it out of your car window; it obstructs traffic both ways as the person you are talking to is driving in the opposite direction.

I do hope you enjoy your stay with us. It is always nice to have you. I hope you are looking forward to seeing me next year because….I live here, these are my roads.

Catskill Relay 50K

I avoided running this race as much as I could. I ran it two years ago and the memories of that day in the blazing sun still haunt me. But reluctantly, out of excuses this morning I laced up my sneakers and with a cup of coffee in my hand headed over to Hanoffee Park. I paid my $10 entry fee and hoped…

I had not team and I secretly hoped no one would need me. Sure enough, one team was short a person and asked me to fill in.

I was scheduled to do leg 5 – a 10K similar to all the others. They all have one hill and that hill is about 5 miles long. After finishing leg #3, the person I was riding with asked me to take over before he fainted from exhaustion. So here I was, jumping from the car to run totally uphill on my first impulse. I cursed until I made it to the first mile, then cursed some more til I got to the second and so on. At some point my support vehicle missed the turn and I was left with no support for the last 3 miles.

I made it.

It really wasn’t bad once I got back to my senses and stopped hallucinating. The finish line had a nice spread of food but I had to leave because my services as a cab driver were needed by my kids at home. So I grabbed a sandwich (gotta get my monies worth!) and drove home.

I'll come up with some excuses next year but I'll probably do it again.

Ascendant Sign

A professor in a reputable university wanting to prove or disprove to his class the accuracy of horoscopes, asked students to give him their birthdays including whenever possible the time of birth. He would compile a natal chart for each one of them.

A few days later the professor walked in the classroom and handed the personalized prepared horoscope to each individual. He asked them to read it and let him know if they did not agree with the personality description gathered based on their own individual birth date.

Every student nodded in agreement and a few smile pleasantly.

The professor then asked the students to pass their horoscope to the person sitting to their right. The subjects read their neighbor’s horoscope and suddenly the classroom broke into laughter.

Every student had received an identical horoscope.

Moral of the story, we all love to hear good things about us and that, my friends, is what the horoscope does. Check me out:

Gemini: Articulate, versatile, adapts to anything. Intellectual. Quick-witted. Smart and polite. Energetic. Affectionate. Generous. Good friend.

Yes, tell me more!!!!!

My mother was a zodiac guru and I grew up hearing about the sun signs and the influence of the ascendant sign or the point in the zodiac rising over the horizon at the time of birth. She swore by it. Of course! Leo is creative and enthusiastic, broad-minded and expansive, faithful and loving, generous and warmhearted.

What about the negative traits, mom? Pompous and patronizing, bossy and interfering, dogmatic and intolerant?

Negative traits of the signs are usually not displayed.

I find it illogical to believe that the position of the planets at the time of a person’s birth is the determining factor of their character, personality and fortune. If so, all born at the same time would share similar traits. I bet no one wants to accept the accuracy of the zodiac when they shared the same birthday with Hitler or some other serial killer.

Astrology is not a science; it is an art and for the most part it gives people what they want to hear (sometimes for a fee). And we all need to hear how good we are once in a while. So turn the radio on and listen to your horoscope:

“Gemini, a pleasant surprise awaits you at work” “You will do well in a career that encompasses music or poetry.”

Music and poetry…I guess my music teacher was wrong after all.

Following the Call of the Heart.

A conversation with a friend last night triggered a memory.

It was the birthday of someone I had cared for deeply and still did at that point. Although a bad break up, I remembered the birthday (I always do, even 20 years later!) and drove to his office.

I parked outside (it is difficult to find parking inside, don’t you think?) and took a deep breath. I turned my car back on and then off again deciding if I should go in with the Dunkin Donuts coffee in my hand or drop it off at the front desk.

What could be bad about bringing a person who had been important in my life a cup of coffee to let him know I still remembered his birthday? That it was still important to me? Nothing, absolutely nothing. But it had been a nasty break up and every meeting, every encounter had been at that same level…nasty.

Cards, letters, calls, had been ignored. I was not looking for a reconnection. I don’t know what I looked for, maybe just to transition into a place with no hurtfulness. It seemed impossible.

Walking into that office on my own was exposing myself to getting hurt again.

I took one last deep breath and made my way to the office, my heart beating fast.

I was not disappointed. Within minutes I knew my visit had been another mistake in the long list I had brewed in the months since the break up.

I drove away hating myself for having again allowed this person to hurt me.

It took me a while to be okay with yet one more rejection but as time went by and my own emotions quiet, I realized I had done what was right for me, I had followed my feelings and extended my hand one more time. Whether it put a smile on his face, a smile he would never show me, or not, it made me smile later knowing I had let this great love know that someone somewhere still cared.

And to me, that was enough.

Eating My Way Through It

I have an identity issue going on. On Blog life and Facebook everybody (my two or three readers) thinks I drink (and they’re right but we won’t go there now…not unless I can sit down with a glass of wine and tell you all about it). However, that is not the reason for my post.

Here is my issue; my coworkers all seem to think all I do is eat. Granted I do eat. I have to eat! They claim that only when they don’t hear “I’m hungry” coming from my desk, they realize I am not there. Birthdays in the office are celebrated with a small birthday cake and a gift, for mine they cooked a full breakfast buffet of pancakes, French toasts, bacon, sausage, omelets and the list goes on. I appreciated it, I really did and I ate (heck, it was free) and two hours later, as to not disappoint them, they heard “I’m hungry”.

I’m sure I’m more than that to them. There are other things I do at work that are rather productive, mind you - but I wonder if anything is noticed other than

Want half of my sandwich? - Sure

I brought bagels. - Cool

There is left over cake – I’ll be there.

And so it goes.

I’m thinking I really need to have a conversation with them, show them who I really am. I’ll do that later, right now I have to go check out the kitchen for a light snack.

Google Me

My manager asked me to come in her office. I felt my heart beating fast. Fearing a reprimand I closed the door as instructed.

"Have a seat"

“What do you know about Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma?” she said.

“More than most, less than I should” I replied with a sigh of relief.

She shared that her younger brother had just been diagnosed with NHL. We talked for a few minutes. When I got up to leave I said

“I haven’t told anyone in the office…. how did you know?”

With a smile she replied “I googled you”.

I laughed. I supposed it is appropriate for an employer to research information on prospective employees but it doesn’t end there.

People google everybody!

It is not an intrusion of privacy because if we don’t want something made public, it should not be on the net. Never write what you don’t want read in court is a good advice to live by. Yet, I find that getting bits and pieces on the Internet about a person opaque and distorts the image of the real person.

I don’t google my friends. Maybe I should! I prefer to be pleasantly surprised as I hear their stories shared in their own words and I discover their personality traits without a preconceived opinion extracted from the web.

Google is a good tool. I use it all the time. I look up lyrics for songs.

Or when I want to find information on people....employers, that is.