The Really Good Stuff Is at The End

There's a keen sense of expectation in the air tonight. It has risen and fallen with the flow of mood, but it's palpable.

It's been a long day. Work is very busy. I won't bore you with details because it's the detail that bore me. Big meeting = many moving parts = many chances for something to go wrong. My job is to minimize that. As much as I make goofy statements about the kind of work I do, I actually take my role pretty seriously. In a nutshell, my job is to keep my boss's head from exploding.

MathMan and the Royal Pains are joining me on this trip to the north Georgia mountains. They have rarely joined me on business trips, so I think that not knowing exactly what to expect has us all a little on edge. I hope they fun. My martyred self will be working most of the time. I'll have a couple of free hours each afternoon. I' thrilled that I can offer them a change of scenery that won't cost us a fortune.

Adding to the hilarity, we're juggling autos. The Dancer, her friend and I are leaving a day before MathMan and the other two. And the fun is just getting started.

MathMan took our car in for servicing today so that it would be in good shape for the trip. He planned to take The Dancer's car in tomorrow. Today as I was driving The Dancer's car home from work, Roxanne, a 1995 Toyota Celica, protested having to drive at high speeds on I75 and let her clutch go all the way to the floor. MathMan had mentioned a week or so ago that he thought the clutch was going. As I waited for MathMan to pick me up from my stranded position, I thanked my lucky stars that the car did its thing on the road close to home instead of in the passing lane of I75. You've gotta take your luck where you can get it, I guess.

Now we must work on plan B which will involve a rental car. We can't fit everyone into our Corolla. Well, we could, but we've got to put luggage for six people in the trunk, so that option is out.....

*********************************
The Actor/Ninja's voice is really changing. He always had a rather Tom Waits quality to his voice, full of unexplained smoke and gravel, but now it's deepening even further. He sounds like The Beav on Leave It to Beaver when his voice was changing. It cracks me up. Not so funny was an accidental flashing he gave me the other day. Naturally, I reacted with my customary grace and serenity.

"Dude, no!!! I can't see that!!!!" I gasped. He was equally horrified. To break the tension, I used my Aunt Betty's line that she once delivered after having seen THAT when a friend of mine was sitting on a bike, apparently commando under his silky 1979 gym shorts...."Honey, if that thing winks at me, I'm going to have to wink back."

Yeah, that cleared the tension out of the air in a jiffy.

*********************************************
I told MathMan about an email I received last night that left me reeling. Seriously, I read it three times and then went to bed and just lay there, staring at the television, half wanting to tell MathMan about it, but knowing that I needed to churn it through my mind for a bit before I spilled the contents out for him to dissect with me. This particular email came shortly after one I'd received from an old paramour who quite accurately and quite sadly noted that I am a fantastic girlfriend, but a terrible wife.

This lead to a discussion of why MathMan puts up with me. We discussed again, how I am a collector of men, people actually, and how the choices I made when I was younger have had long lasting effects on several people. I've just become aware of some of the consequences of things I'd done. Through all of that discussion, MathMan remained supremely calm and self-assured. This surprised me, but it also gave me new insight into how his mind works.

At one point, I was so fascinated with how he sees things that I grabbed a marker and some paper and drew a picture of a brain. Then we attempted to diagram how much of his brain is taken up by this and that. Apparently boobies and vaginas consume a large part of this man's gray matter. Coming up a close second was work. Money, family and chores overlapped. Sports and food barely made it into a couple of tiny corners.

I was so astonished by this that I asked him if we could try making a pyramid diagram next. He took away my marker.

Fine, I thought. Let's go over again, how it is that MathMan can tolerate my difficult behaviors. Yes, behaviors. I can't be expected to focus on just one way to hard to live with, can I? I pecked and nagged and nibbled at his psyche until he got up and fetched the W. Somerset Maugham book he'd just finished, Up at the Villa.

"Let me tell you, but don't get mad," he began as he searched the book for a particular passage. I lay with my head in his lap, my feet dangling over the end of the love seat.

"I won't. I promise."

"Of course you behaved like a perfect idiot. But it showed you have a generous heart and to tell you the truth, not many of the sort of women I've known had that...." he read aloud.

I'm not quite sure that I ever see myself as generous. Kind, yes. Exceedingly worried about the feelings of others, oh yeah. But generous? I'm not so sure.

Now take my friend Linda. She is generous. Look at the gifts she sent me. She makes these beautiful pieces of art with her own hands and then shares them with me. I am touched and grateful. Linda will make custom pieces for you. Visit her website to see what she has to offer.

Earrings by Spotted Moose Jewels

Click on the pictures to get a better look at the detail on the earrings.

Thank you, Linda.