Walking in Memphis

Happy Birthday S!!!

Today is S's birthday. It is truely amazing to think on your best freindships; S is one of them. We met at Covenant and have been great friend since through many, many things: weddings, moves, jobs, sickness, dogs, trips, families, in-laws, etc. And, I really think that this past year has been the best year of our freindship. They are in the process of moving and I don't know where; hopefully, it will be closer to Memphis.

To commemorate, I thought that I would put together a top 10 list of our friendship. This may not matter to any of you, but it will bring much laughs to both of us.

1. Being my best friend for 8+ years!!
2. Daily phone calls about everything
3. Trying to get others to understand our friendship
4. Snorting Laughs
5. Getting our ass kicked with running
6. Cigars & Beer
7. Ketchen & Stiles
8. Thinking someone broke in my parents house in CA and calling 911
9. Holding our breath on your wedding day
10. Grunion run in San Diego

Getting My Ass Kicked!

It has been almost 6 months since I picked up my running shoes and actually got out there and did a full run. Since my surgery, life has been limited with what I could do and my jaw is still not fully mended.

Today, I got out the running shoes and ran in downtown Nashville. More then my ass got kicked, my lungs and abs got kicked pretty good, as well. It felt great to be out there and get my blood and legs moving again. I have forgotten how much I love it, but am reminded why it has taken me so long to get back into, it is hard work.

I don't know how long I ran; I am thinking about 2 miles or so. I am going to get out there again tommorow and try to get back in my 15-30 mile marker, especially since S runs about 5 miles a day!

Blink

I just finished reading an excellent book that a freind gave me, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.

This book drills into the choices that seem to be made instant - in a blink of an eye - but that choice is really not simple at all. One interesting thing that the author points out is our societys concept of leadership. Most CEO's or high executives are over 6 feet and that is because we seem to see height = leadership. Interesting, huh? The percentage of CEO or executives under 6 feet is a fairly small. So, the combination of a female and short is almost nonexistent in the American executive structure.

But what I think really fascinated me was how when we meet people that first impression is ususally acurate. The author explains that first impressions are usually a more accurate impression on someone then knowing that person for several years.

I am now reading Cane River, which has been a novel written with a lot of history in it.

Okay, now I got to clean the house, pack and leave for Nashville.

Please, come rob from me!

I came home last night exhausted and weary. This last week was a blur....Gulf Port, MS; New Orleans, LA; Memphis (24 hours); and then Maryland. So, after finally coming home last night, I pretty much left my luggage in my living room, got ready for bed and went to bed. 45 minutes later, at about 11:00 pm, someone was pounding on my front door. I opened it and there was my sweet neighbor handing me my keys.

Yep, I left them in the front door; at least this time, they were only out there for about an hour. I have once left them in the door overnight; not a great idea, right!?!? Oh well, at least someone looks out for me when they can.

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On a side note, I met two air marshals on one of my trips this week. I have to say that all the clues were there that they were air marshals but they were not obvious clues, just things that I picked up on. I did not find out until after we got off the flight and one of them told me. I asked him on the flight what he did and he told me that he owned restaurants (obviously he can't say anything while on the flight). What is remarkable is that these men are on each flight and they blend in with everything going on. There have been many times that I have tried to figure out who they were on flights and there has never been anything distinctive that sticks out. Although, I do tend to see the same faces on flights that I am a "regular" on and I sometimes wonder. Oh well, you learn something new everyday; like before 9/11 there were only 35 air marshalls and now they can't recruite enough men to be air marshals. And, knowing a second language is almost a guarantee that they will consider you to be an air marshall.

Butter, Eggs & Spoiled Milk

Time to go grocery shoping. This is all that greeted me when I opened my fridge this afternoon. I'm only home until tommorow night, but I am tired of eating out. Tonight I think I am going to have chicken, asparagus and couscos. Yummy!!

6:30 wake up call.....

This morning, I literally jumped out of bed to someone pounding at my door at 6:30 am. If it was any other morning, I would have been scared half to death. But, I thought, "Oh good, my luggage is here." Much to my surprise FedEx was there; I think we both caught each other by surprise. I said, "Oh, it is only FedEx; I thought you were my missing luggage." He half apologized for being there so early and said, "well, maybe this is a check or something since I don't have your luggage." And, it was; it was a huge expense check to pay my credit card for my business travels. The visa gremlins were going to come find me soon if I did not get some sort of payment in.

Well, luggage is here. Got here at 12:30. They don't even now where it came from. Sigh...at least it is here and I have taken my stuff to the dry cleaners.

Oh luggage, please come home!

Finally made it home after a whirl wind of travels this past week - New Orelans and St. Louis.

New Orleans was a hard week. It was days full of hard meetings and I was training a new employee. It was late nights and early mornings. Thankfully, all the meetings went well and I will be back in one week for a day and a half.

I did have a chance to have dinner with Diber and her husband, Chris. This was the first time that I had met Chris; wow....can I say that they are one brillant couple!! We had a great dinner, caught up (on what we did not know from reading on the blogs) and had great laughs. It is always so good to see Covenant pals and it was awesome to find a great restaurant in NO, which I am going back to. By the way, Jeanette is one cute pregant chick!!

On Friday, I got up early (4 am) to catch a flight to St. Louis to have a girl's weekend and celebrate a friend who graduaded from Covenant Seminary. I spent the whole day catching up on work in a hotel (after I got in) and then caught up with everyone for the graduation. Matt Novenson was awarded with a great scolarship for his doctoral work at Princeton; it was great to see a Covenant alum get this honor and especially since it was Matt. I counted nine Covenant alum graduating from Covenant seminary. And everywhere I turned there were more Covenant folks.

The weekend was not restful either, we eneded up going to City Museum after graduation, which is an adult playgound. It was AWESOME! If you are ever in St. Louis, this is a must. It sounds cheesy, but it is one of the most imagnitive places I have ever seen. I also wanted to get to see the arch, but we did not have time.

At last, I got home tonight but with no luggage. I wearily got off the plane and then realized that my luggage did not make it. I stayed at the airport for almost 2 hours searching for it. Memphis tells me that they don't know where it is and they can't even confirm that it got on the plane. I just got off the phone with them again and they told me to call St. Louis to see if they could tell me if they had it (um, isn't this their job?). Unfortunately, since I was gone for a full week - my suits, shoes, makeup, hairdryer, etc. are all in there. If they can't find it by tommorow afternoon, I will have to go buy new things b/c I have a major meeting in Memphis on Tuesday.

So, I am sitting here hoping that a miracle will happen and someone will call and say that they found my luggage.

Cat's Meow

I have no idea what possessed me, but last night, I ended up at the Cat's Meow in New Orleans.

I was pulled into singing karaoke with someone that I did not know, Joey, and we ended up bringing down the house and asked to get up again and sing. Our first song was "Sweet Home Alabama," which was a great time. I can't even remember what our second song was; all I knew was the chorus.

No one get any ideas, this is the last time that I will probably ever sing karaoke.

Atlanta Traffic & Me

My travel woe's have continued to follow me.......

I'm in Atlanta, in a rental car and hit someone from behind on the freeway! Oh, it has been a long day from waking up at 4 am to catch a 5:50 flight.

Here is what happened: I was driving on the freeway and started slowing down as a all our traffic was also slowing down, I looked down for one second and then hit the person in front of me, who apparetly slowed down more then me!

There was no damage to the car I hit, but there is some damage to my rental car. The police came and I got a citation - driving too closely.

I am in holding pattern; my HR and company is involved since this is covered under my work's car insurance and since this happened b/c of work. I don't know what is going to happen with anything. And, I havn't even crossed the road of telling Hertz about all of this.

About Me

TEN Random things about me:

10. I make a mean apple pie
9. I am really 5 feet 1/4 inch!
8. I love country music - yee haw!!!
7. I know all the songs to Sound of Music by heart
6. I hate waking up in the morning
5. I love my down comforter
4. I can make a "smiley face" with my stomach
3. I love playing poker and I am good at it
2. I love Indian food
1. I love to pay my bills and crunching my budget

NINE Places I've Visited:

9. Chicago
8. Houlton, ME
7. Quebec
6. Tijuana, Mexico
5. Key West, FL
4. New York, NY
3. New Orleans, LA
2. Providence, RI
1. LaFayette, LA

EIGHT Things I Want To Do Before I Die:

8. Skydive
7. Go to Alaska
6. Fly an airplane
5. Write a short story
4. Go to culinary school
3. Travel Eurpoe
2. Buy an original piece of art
1. Buy a house

SEVEN of My Favorite Things:
7. Strawberries
6. Cup of Coffee or Tea
5. Reading
4. Cooking a new receipe
3. Having people in my home
2. Being alone
1. Singing

SIX Things I Believe In:

6. Democracy
5. The work my brother, J, is doing in Iraq
4. That happiness can't be bought
3. That there is nothing wrong in being single and content
2. Friendships
1. God

FIVE Things I'm Afraid Of:

5. Spiders
4. Being forgotten
3. That my car will be stolen
2. That something will happen to my brother, J
1. Sleeping in the Atlanta airport, again

FOUR of My Favorite Items In My Bedroom:

4. My bed
3. My Pillow
2. My down comforter - so comfortable
1. That it is my room and not a hotel room

THREE Things I Do Everday:

3. Drink Coffee
2. Talk to S & B
1. Look at my braces and wonder when they will get off

TWO Things I Am Trying Not To Do Right Now:

2. Work
1. Work some more, but I probably will.

ONE Person I Want To Meet Right Now:

1. David Letterman - he is soo funny!!!

President Bush & Me in Jackson, MS

Today, I was in Jackson, MS, today for several client meetings. I was on my way from an appointment trying to get my way to Kinko's when I noticed that all roadways to the interstate were shut down. Apparently, President Bush was in town for a visit. I managed to get on the frontage roads but could not find a way to get on the other side of the freeway since everything was blocked. I did manage to see President Bush's motorcade drive by on the interstate.

So, finally after I get to Kinko's and spend an hour on the phone returning messages and putting out fires, I leave for an appointment that I have about 5 miles north of where I was. Again, the freeway was shut down because President Bush was making his way back to the airport. ARGH!!! So, instead of 10 minutes, it took me 50 minutes to get to my appointment, which I was late for. Thankfully, the VP's that I was meeting was also caught in traffic. I did see his motorcade a second time.

The funny thing was watching everyone pull to the side of the road, run across the frotage roads to the freeway to see the motorcade. Rumor has it that the second time that President Bush motorcade was on the freeway, that he was not in it. Rather, he flew via helicoptor to the airport. HA - he fooled everyone!

One Year Later....

This weekend marks a year since I moved to Memphis, TN. It is kind of strange to look back on all that has gone on and how much has happened in one year. There have been the ups and downs, but I am so happy that I took the step to move to a city where I did not know anyone. I think that it is something that everyone needs to experience.

This weekend is a little crazy in Memphis; we have Memphis in May starting downtown (music weekend festival) and the playoffs for the Grizzlies. I went downtown last night with a few friends to the art galleries open house that they have every month. It was a great evening of wine and art; a great combination!

Its Official.......

I am now a permanent Tennessee resident. I finally got my driver's license about 3 weeks ago. Took 3 1/2 hours to get it; Shelby County has some assbackward ways in organizing their DMV. They have no organization; instead of orderly lines, they have people yelling at you every few minutes of where to stand, etc., etc. It was a very painful expereince.

This week I got my TN tags. I drove to the tag station (you can't get you license and tags at the same place in TN) and was told that I needed to get my car inspected since I was in city limits. The lady told me that it would take just a few minutes, as they were really proficient. Well, the wait time was 1 1/2 hours to get my car inspected!

I am just glad that it is all over with. I know that I procrastinated on this, but I think part of me realized that once I did this, moving to Memphis was a permantent thing. It is.

90th entry, I killed a dog, more travel stories, etc.

I have been told in many words from S that I need to start blogging again. Okay, here I am. My life has been much of a whirlwind since I last posted right before I went on vacation to Miami to vist S.

Coming back from Miami, I ended up spending the night at the Atlanta airport with 5,000 other stranded passangers. It was a night to remember, with all the comfort of two fluffy Delta blankets and a comfortable small pillow from one of the stores. I wandered down to B1, found a clean spot on the rug, which is hard to find(!) and went to sleep. I woke up every 15 minutes to the calming sound of workers cleaning the rugs in the "B" concorde. I finally arrived home the next morning, 13 hours after I was suppose to.

Okay, here is the kicker, I did the same thing 1 1/2 weeks later. This time, I was coming in from Dulles; my flight got delayed b/c of weather and I missed my flight. I thought, this cannot be happening again to me; I just did this less then two weeks ago. But it was and I motto in life is "it is what it is" or "buck up and be a man!" Again, I slept in the airport; instead of concorse "B", I slept in the big circle on two chairs. It was a "little" better then sleeping on the floor, but I was kept up all night by people talking and cleaning people. I now feel like a road warrior with sleeping in the Atlanta airport. I am going back through there next week and hope not to repeat that experience.

And then, I killed a dog. Two weeks ago, I went to Chattanooga to visit B, where a dog ran right in front of me on the mountain. I also have the evidence of this on my car - my fog light is busted and I hace cracked paint on my car. I later ran in to M who declared that I have the worse road experiences ever. I have never felt so bad in my life.

Okay, that is it for now. I promise, S, to keep blogging more often; at least I will try!!

Leaving It All Behind!

A dream comes true, well, at least part of it. There are some days that I wish I can buy a one way ticket to a warm location and not look back. I proably want this about 2-3 times a month.

Tomorrow, I leave for vacation - Miami - to visit S. I can't wait. I am not looking back. I am not thinking of work. I am not thinking of how many emails will be waiting me. I am not thinking that I am traveling every week until mid-May. I am not thinking of anything, but that I will be gone for 5 days with S. My suitcase is filled with shorts, skirts, jeans, tops, sunglasses and swimsuits. Not one closed toe shoe, pair of heels or anything resembling a suit! It is true freedom!!!

One day, I will buy a one way ticket to a paradise!