THIS SITE IS A MEMBER OF WEBRING

This site is a member of WebRing.
To browse visit
here

 

This site is a member of Search4blog.   To browse visit: http://www.search4blogs.com/bloggers/index.php

 

http://journals.aol.com/rapieress/Aweekinthelife/

ONE...TWO...THREE

There is that saying "Blah blah comes in threes".  Now, depending on where your head is at, this saying can go something like "Good things come in threes"; "Trouble comes in threes"; "Bad luck comes in threes"; or "Death comes in threes". (GULP)

I come from an Irish background where being obsessed with death is a cultural phenomenon.  I have always been told, "Death comes in threes".  As many of you know, we lost our battle this week to keep Annabel alive and lost her to the heavens on Tuesday.  Being of Irish decent I did wonder what death was coming next...

Brian was amazing about his kitty and I should probably write about kids and death at some point.  They seem to have this natural understanding of the process.   Because of Brian's ability to handle the situation in a profound way, I did not completely "loose it."  We had a proper burial for her, with prayers, kind words and candles.  There is a tiny statue of a child holding a kitten marking the spot.  We are at peace, which lovey kitty would have wanted since she was a cat that loved to love.

This morning at 6:30, my phone rings.  It's EBet.  Our friend Leslie's mother died at 4:00am this morning.  It has been expected for some time now, although it does not make her passing any easier for Leslie. This was number two....

I lit a candle for them at sunrise and wished her spirit a calm passage into the other world.  I also said a prayer for Leslie, as I am sure her heart is aching over the loss of her mother.  These days will go like a blur and she will only remember tiny pieces of the day's events.  These moments always take me back to the day my father died.

I remember the weather, the day (a Saturday) and whom I was with.  I remember my mother pulling a cloth over my father's still face and the look of his large frame permanently asleep in his favorite chair.  I remember Walter walking me around our large city block while the city coroner came to take my father away in his long black Hearse.  Then there are the lost periods throughout his funeral week, where I know more must have happened, but I simply don't remember.

On a lighter note...my new water heater died on Tuesday too.  The guys are here today putting in another new one.  Maybe this is the third death?  I'll settle for it being a water heater.  It has been interesting living without hot water, as dishes pile up in the dishwasher and I grow tired of take-out food.  I have been showering at a friend's house and Brian has been bathing at his dad's.  There is no funeral ceremony with a dead water heater, just a lot of groaning and cursing by the guys trying to make it fit in Brian's tiny closet.  I love having men slave over stuff I don't want to ever learn how to do myself.

Death always brings change; unfortunately we aren't always ready to roll with it.  I know death is a part of life...I just wish it would happen to people I don't know and never to me.  I could just imagine the stories my girlfriends and me would have at age 400.  "Gessh, my breasts were hanging so far that the guy behind me stepped on them..."...

Until next time-

C

http://journals.aol.com/rapieress/Aweekinthelife/

TEARFUL GOODBYES

ANNABEL COX

Our loving "jellybelly" kitty.

1992-2006

May her blessed, sweet soul rest in peace.

STONES JUNE

In 1988 Prozac is introduced to the public,  "Push It" is the popular song and I went to work for a bank where I met June.  Sick of being a wedding consultant and 10 long years of fashion shows, models, running a wedding shop, and planning a great many of the Northern California weddings I walked away from everything. 

 

I broke up with Rich, went back to college and took a friend up on her offer to work at Great Western Bank in downtown Santa Rosa.  I would have done anything to get away from brides and begin a new life.  I think my mother thought I was mad.  There I was, in a beautiful home with Rich, a nice car, vacations, beautiful jewelry and a prestigious job in the community and I hated all of it.  I walked out with just the clothes on my back.

 

Leaving the wedding business was not as easy, because it involved leaving behind a cherished friend who had been like a second mother to me.  But… I had reached the point where I hated the sight of a bride walking through the door of the shop and found it difficult to conceal my disapproval of their selfish, self-centered, childish bitchy behaviors.  And if it wasn’t the bride,then it was a bridesmaid or maids or the mothers.  I don’t know what it is about the whole wedding process that can turn people into the most horrifying displays of human nature.

 

So I ran screaming into banking.  June was the lead teller on the teller line at Great Western and I liked her instantly.  I remember the first time I met her.  I was filling my tray in the vault (getting money) with the vault teller when June walked in with some hilarious comment that made me laugh aloud and a beautiful friendship was born.

 

June, a little over 5’10, thin brunette with a large smile was 22 and the hottest 10-keyer I ever saw.  She could talk to customers and add their stack of business checks without ever looking at the machine.  I think even her customers were shocked at her speed and accuracy while smiling and teasing them about something.  She was the favorite of the platform supervisors and most of the employees at the bank, which drew extreme jealousy from Madeline, who fancied herself as the darling of the bank.

 

There are two types of redheads.  There is the type who love to make love to one person, and are kind to everyone until crossed and then there is the selfish, mean, backstabbing, love to make love to everyone, and kind to people for a hidden agenda type.  Madeline was the second type. (I will leave to your own opinion on which type I am).  But there I was, working around another redhead - one that was insanely jealous over June and liked me for some reason.

 

I preferred June.

 

There are no games with June and she sees the underdeveloped talents in those she loves.  For me, she thinks I am a beautiful, wonderful incredible woman that she just has to find a perfect man for.  She is convinced every man loves me, and if he doesn’t he is either in denial or incapable of loving anyone.  All, which make me laugh hysterically as she will not listen to me when I attempt to argue that point.  She just throws up her hands and says something like, “Usted es una chica loca!” She used to love to set me up on blind dates and I would tease her that her only criteria wes that they breathed.

 

Herfavorite form of mischeif was to see a cute guy in the teller line, check his bank balance to see if he had money and then direct him to my window because I was "the only one who could handle his transaction".  I would never see this coming and the next thing I know, she'd be sliding up behind me, calling some guy to my window and introducing me.  Then she would return to her computer where she would flash my screen with dos-based instant messages about how cute he was and that I should ask him out.  I would try and keep a straight face while handling this guy's transaction.

 

While working there, June discovered Doug and brought him to my window.  "Schuzam!" I thought, "She finally got it right!"  There before me was this 6'4", businessman who was the cutest thing I'd ever seen.  He winked, as he could see what she was doing...my face turned beat red and a friendship was born. 

 

Doug would come into the bank every other day, wait in line and then wait for me to be free to help him.  There were times I couldn't think for staring at him.  Finally one day, at my window he announced, "Catherine, you are the cutest thing and I would like to take you out and pursue a relationship, but before we met a girlfriend of mine from back east has moved here to try and work things out.  I owe it to her to try and you aren't making it very easy.  I respect you too much to mess with your head.  I wanted you to know why I haven't asked you out, but can't stop coming by.  Do you want me not to come to the bank anymore?"  To say I was disappointed would be an understatement, but I loved his honesty and I liked his friendship, so I told him "Yes, come in.  I don't want to lose a friend".

 

I went on to date Sean (another June arrangement) along with this kid whose name for the life of me I can't remember.  I loved seeing Doug at the bank, and within a very short amount of time Kathy, the manager for Continental Savings in Sonoma, snatched me up and told me I belonged in San Francisco.  I always felt the brief time I spent at Great Western was just to get me away from the wedding business and to meet June.  Doug was to show me that nice guys abound and Sean let me drive Mercedes from his car lot.  It was a sweet period of time which  I attribute to the magic of knowing June.

 

We have remained best friends for 18 years now, although I don't get to see her as much as we both would like.  She now bestows her magic on her husband who doesn't like to share and travels quite a bit with the Rolling Stones.  But the brief time we get together, the magic is there and I enjoy laughing and hearing her comments about my life.  I am lucky to call her my friend.

 

Several years back, while pregnant I was hiking Spring Lake near my home and came upon a newly erected park bench.  Spring Lake has this cool thing where you can dedicate a park bench to someone who has died.  As I slowly passed the dedication plaque my eyes began to read the name.... DOUGLAS URBANICK ....LOVING HUSBAND.  I stopped dead in my tracts.  It was Doug.  He was in his 30's.  I stared long and hard in a state of complete shock and sadness.  I thought, "Oh thank you God, for I could not have handled this".  I remembered all too clearly my own mother's pain when my father died.  I would not have dealt well with being a widow at 36.  It would have killed me.  I felt deep sadness for his wife and I was grateful I wasn't in her shoes.  It is funny how life works.  We ask God "Why?" all the time and then years later realize that it is a good thing we don't sometimes get what we wish for.

 

Now ... in the case of June...I wished for a new life with new friends and in she waltzed.  I am grateful this particular wish came true and our lasting friendship spans the test of time.

 

Until next time-

 

C

 

http://www.rollingstonesfanatic.com/malfparties.shtml

 

 

http://journals.aol.com/rapieress/Aweekinthelife/

ACROSS THE MILES

Spoken by Amairgin the Gael as he first set foot in Ireland

The Mystery

I am the wind which breathes upon the sea,
I am the wave of the ocean,
I am the murmur of the billows,
I am the ox of the seven combats,
I am the vulture upon the rocks,
I am a beam of the sun,
I am the fairest of plants,
I am a wild boar in valor,
I am a salmon in the water,
I am a lake in the plain,
I am a word of science,
I am the point of the lance of battle,
I am the God who created in the head the fire.
Who is it who throws light into the meeting on the mountain?
Who announces the ages of the moon?
Who teaches the place where couches the sun?
(If not I)

 

Mark sent this “First Poem of Ireland” to me today in an email.  Outside the sky is gray like the thick smoke from a large fire, yet the temperature is cold and the wind blows strong.  It is a rainy Irish day in Santa Rosa.  I was bemoaning in my mind how much I distain at living here, and how I’d love to move to some place like Las Vegas, where 5000 new people move a month.  What exciting energy it must create, and great employment opportunities.  A new life…a new place.

 

This weather tires me by February and I am ready for spring.  And ready to move, but there is my son…and his daddy…that he loves.  A problem that cannot be solved today, but Mark reaches out, across the miles, remembers how I love all things Irish, and reminds me that no one is an island who has friends.  Such kindness always shocks me – I do not know why.  That a man would remember what I love, and take the time to see to it that I experience it.  Midwest men are so different than the men in California…so very different.

 

And old and dear friend of mine (June) is coming to visit me this weekend.  She has the comedic edge of a professional stand up comedian, so I should enjoy some great laughs and be able to survive this latest rainstorm.

 

But spring…please hurry up.

 

Until next time-

 

C

 

http://journals.aol.com/rapieress/Aweekinthelife/

...And you know what though....like tonight ... I look over and Brian has fallen asleep on the couch...Boonie the dog is lying on her back on Brian's legs snoring away...Annabel is curled up by Brian's head with her head stretched out over Brian's cheek. 

I wouldn't trade this craziness for the world.

C

 

http://journals.aol.com/rapieress/Aweekinthelife/

WHO MOVED MY CHEESE?

Brian returns home for the week and bedlam prevails.  There are holy jeans, shoes worn to the toe, and socks where the heels are moving toward the arch.  When does the destruction fairy slip into our world and go wild with ruination abandon?  The laundry suddenly piles up, dishes remain in the sink and bath towels disappear into a black hole.

I look about as my carefully organized life crumbles into conversations about the big dipper and how many spoons we can hold up to the sky until we can't see it,  the underbelly of an earth worm or is there one..., how many times around can the dog chase her tail and how many minutes can a piece of driftwood float with a rock balanced on it.

In the middle of the day I get a call from Brian at school.  He is in the nurses office.  His leg is still bothering him from his skating fall last Thursday.  Funny how he ran around just fine on it this morning... I go to the school to retrieve him, but wonder what he is not liking about school these days.  He is limping, but after an hour's wait in the Dr.'s office she can only surmise that it is a bruise.  I do note his new shoes from November laying across the floor of the examination room, look like a dragon chewed them up and spit them out.  Maybe it is just time for a new pair of shoes...and jeans...

There goes the new outfit I was thinking about for myself...

I get him home, fix dinner, help him with math homework, which I ask you, "Why in the hell is a quadrilateral line parallel to anything and why do we care?"  Is Brian becoming an Architect, or an Engineer?  At 10?  Good lord.  Why couldn't he want to be a famous writer?  Nope, he just happens to love Math.

And as he is asking me for help, I am trying to imagine two adults in bed and exactly how our positions would work to create a quadrilateral and who would be taller.  HEY!  Don't knock it - whatever way I can get my head wrapped around his math problem and help him solve it.  As I am straining blood capillaries in my brain, Brian says "Oh never mind - I know this one".  Oh thanks son ... now my head hurts.

I cast my eye about the place and there is stuff everywhere and I cannot figure out how this happens so quickly, but if I stop and ponder it, this is exactly how it happens:

...I am in the kitchen washing dishes and Brian calls "Mom"...I reply with "Just a minute" but a minute won't work so I stop what I am doing to go to his room for him to show me he can spin a top...ok...then he says he's hungry...I go back and fix him a snack with the dishes half done...but before I can finish putting the snack stuff away,  Brian's friend comes in through the back door...letting in the cat who is now hungry...and to no surprise, so is the friend...I make another snack and tell Brian to feed the cat, which makes the dog want something...Brian feeds both pets with dry food where their bowls look like dry food towers...and leaves the bagged food next to the pet feeding area...I, of course don't see this because I am making a snack...which I give to Brian's friend...as my mother is knocking on my front door...(of course she is because my house can't ever be clean when she pops by)...she brings gifts from Hawaii... which Brian opens with great glee...but... as with grandparents they buy stuff that comes in millions of pieces that I will be stepping on in the middle of the night...I am sure it is revenge for the times I made her worry...the boys take their shoes and socks off in the living room and spread Brian's new gifts across the floor to admire...my gift, a wooden bowl gets set on the counter because I think I need to wash it before putting it on a shelf to collect dust from non-use...I notice the coffee table has pencil shavings from the homework Brian started, along with glass water rings and rubber bands...the ice pack is on the floor next to the table along with 4 pencils, three crayons, a dog toy, a napkin and more rubber bands...what is it with boys and rubber bands..?...of course my mother takes the seat right in the middle of his mess and now I can't focus on her Hawaii stories ...I am only hoping she isn't sitting on something Brian has left behind...she finally leaves and I realize I need something from the grocery store... I race madly to Safeway and return home to fix dinner...begin dishes, only to have Brian interrupt me for more homework help of which I need my own tutor for...then comes the coercion to get him to shower...then I need to do a load of laundry because he has no socks ...or clean jammies...we compromise with sweat clothes...and at some point I fall onto my bed with a book that I end up falling asleep to...only to wake up this morning and wonder what happened to the place...

and don't even get me going on the morning ritual...

I laughed when I was listening to my morning radio show, Bob and Sheri and a woman called in to say that all she wanted for Valentines Day was to come home to a clean house that she didn't clean.  No toys on the floor, no shoes and socks tossed everywhere, no dishes in the sink - a perfectly clean home.  She also wanted to be able to enjoy it this way for two days.  The idea of it turned her on...hell it turned me on. 

It is amazing how we go from wanting flowers and jewelry for romance to just a home that looks like a fresh hotel room when we enter it.

Until next time-

C

http://journals.aol.com/rapieress/Aweekinthelife/

http://www.aweekinthelifeofaredhead.com

 

Tags: mom blogger, mommy blogger, A Week In the Life of A Redhead, Who moved my cheese