Suzanne Calling

Liz helped me to put things in perspective today. I'm looking at situations around me and getting extremely frustrated about them. Liz threw out something very philosophical at me: She said life is a poker game. I was raised that if I get a crappy hand, I keep playing. I throw out the crappy cards and keep playing. I'll bluff my way through and make people think I've got an awesome hand. I'm surrounded by others who get a crappy hand, accept it and fold. They don't even try to keep on playing, and that's they way they were raised. It's a very wise assessment. We all are a product of our raising and some examples drive this home: My dad was dealt some bitter hands. He quit drinking when he and my mom split. He quit smoking and started working out daily when the doctor told him he was at risk of having a fatal heart attack. He kept working (and working out) when he was going through radiation for thyroid cancer, and only was out of work for the hosp...

Joyce called to with a question today, one that I've dealt with before. This happens a lot-we ask each other something and the other party usually has first hand experience with it. Or at the very least, has an unbiased and useful point of view even if she hasn't had the same thing happen. This time, she wanted to know how long she should wait before writing off a friendship. She has a friend from college (sorority sister, I think) whom she's mentioned here and there over the years. They're at different stages in their lives. Joyce is married and has kids. A is single and lives alone. Been there, done that. What happened with Joyce is that A typically calls when she needs something. Joyce usually complies, though this time, several weeks have elapsed since the request. What would I do? Would I write her off? This is one that I had pondered before and I actually have an answer based on my own experience. I think we can all come up with at least one friend t...

I did a stupid human trick this week. For months, I planned to meet up with one of my internet friends. We're part of a small, close knit group of about a dozen that is part of a large group in the upper thousands. She's had a rough year (I can relate) and decided to take a Disney cruise. Sweet-we can meet at Port Canaveral. So we planned for a few months that we'd hang out for an hour or so. It'd be worth the two odd hour drive to meet face to face after the countless IMs and several phone calls. Wednesday night, I went and got goodies for her and her daughter. Sand pails to use at Castaway Cay. Some Barnie's coffee, because hey, if it can get me to drink coffee, ya gotta try it. Florida flip flop keychains, Disney flip flops and some snacks. Thursday dawns with blue skies and poofy clouds-perfect cruise weather. I hop in the car and head east. I pass by Orlando International Airport (MCO) about 20 minutes after her flight lands. I call her cell phone an...

Thanks to all who called and emailed after yesterday's entry. I have to apologize that I 'lost it', but things have been brewing for a while. In addition to the printed words, some conversations that needed to happen have taken place. Am I okay? Not really sure. Will I be? Probably-resilience is an attribute both parents bestowed on me. These dark days never seem to last too long, but when you all hear talk like that from me, it's a shock. That said, listening to me vent were Joyce and Donna. Thank you for letting me air my problems without judging. Now, for the afterlife part. My phone rang at 2:30 this morning. Phone calls at that hour are never good news. Jane was en route to the hospital for a possible heart attack. Ed's mom called me with this news, and to ask to be taken to the hospital. This means getting the kids up and schlepping the 30 miles, but I put myself in her shoes. I tell her I'll get there as soon as I can. Something told me that I should not...

I'm just annoyed today, and in a pissy mood. Tired of waiting for this leg to heal. I'm tired of not being able to take any time off to let it heal properly. Tired of holding everything together. Tired of having to tell others to do things that they should know enough to do themselves. I have to find energy to pack, to find a place to live and then move. Moving sucks. I hate it and I thought I'd never do it ever again. However, things being what they are, my efforts aren't enough to keep this house we live in. We can't afford it on my salary. Hope I can find a place to rent somewhere in the attendance area of the school the boys currently attend.

Late last month, Classmates sent me one of their dozen emails "please come back. We'll give you a really good deal". Remember, this is the company that I signed up for three months, then they automatically deducted another 15 bucks for another three months. This time, they offered for me to rejoin for 15 bucks for the year. What prompted me to do it? The little thing they added where you can 'sign the guestbook' to let someone know you visited your profile. I could see people signed it, but not who-unless I was a member. I am a sucker. That number kept going up and I couldn't see WHO was signing that guest book, saying hello twenty plus years after leaving high school. :) It was teasing me, and finally I couldn't take it anymore. Now I know who has signed the guest book! It seems like a lot of people I have good memories of but didn't socialize with have popped by to say hello. Several have sent some really nice emails, which I find pretty c...

My regional director is visiting my store this week. She visits once per quarter and the visit to our district was planned for a while. However, now that we're losing two of our managers, and the store across town recently lost their GM, these two stores will be graced with her presence. It's a given that all the managers NOT departing for this new retailer will sit down with her for a climate survey. It doesn't look good for a district manager to lose this many managers at once-they want to ensure that we're happy with her leadership. Good retailers do this-I've been through climate surveys before. This means new clothes to ensure I look crisp, polished and professional. I am picky about my clothing-always have been. I prefer solids, simple tailoring and try to avoid trendy pieces in purchasing work clothes. Until I moved to Florida, I lived in white, tan, khaki and black. Other than the various Disney apparel pieces, there was very little color in t...

I've got to come up with nicknames for the kids-as it's getting old writing 'older son' and 'younger son'. Any ideas? In any event, younger son has been attending cooking school since September. We're fueling his passion for food, which has been a good thing. The child definitely won't be eating Ramen noodles in college. Noooo, he'll probably be charming someone into cutting him a break on cans of crabmeat and making crabcakes for all his roommates. Can you really say the same of paying for a sports activity? About a month ago, a reporter was at the cooking school asking questions for an article about the proliferation of these cooking programs for kids. He wondered if it was thanks to Food Network, which I'd have to say yes. Back when I was a kid, you had Graham Kerr (too flamboyant), Julia Child (pretty neat, when I got to see it) and Earl Peyroux. They were shown once a week or during the day while we kiddos were in school. Now, kid...

I will always have a soft spot for theatre. If I was so inclined, I could switch my major and be a second semester junior in college (depending on the major), however, I really want my degree to say technical theatre. So there's the history. One of the hot links at the top of my firefox browser is IMDB, because movies also tweak my interest. It is always good, when having a disagreement about someone's role in a film, to bring up their page and settle the argument once and for all. Broadway shows? I don't think I'll ever have a dispute over where a show played, how long it played, who was in the cast and what they moved on to. It's just not interesting to anyone else I know. Apparently, there are others who share that bug for theatre, because there is a counterpart to IMDB. It's IBDB, the Internet Broadway Database. I've learned some cool stuff... *the first Broadway show I saw (The Magic Show, Cort Theatre, July 28, 1976-yes, I know the date) had Davi...

Tonight, Donna, the boys and I climbed aboard the wayback machine and took in a B52s concert at Busch Gardens. Enjoyed is a more accurate word to describe the event. Fred, Kate, Cindy and Keith put on a great show (Fred is charming and witty) and the new songs off the new album definitely make me want to go pick up the CD. The tour memorabilia was nice, but not 30 dollars nice, so we skipped the T shirts that we'd have bought back in the 80's. One thing that really bothered us was the quantity of people who were probably there because it was free with park admission. Dead crowd, except for perhaps 100 of us out of the 2000 in attendance. They recognized "Roam" and "Rock Lobster", but not much else got more than polite applause (save the 100 or so previously mentioned-I believe all of us are hoarse right now.) Meanwhile, Donna was dancing, and I was doing my best to keep up-at one point, younger son complained that we were making the benches shake! The co...