Friday, November 4, 2011

This morning...


As long as I'm documenting my life this month, let me introduce you to the women I spend 5 hours a day with - affectionately referred to as The Symphony Babes



The three on the left are Lindas (yep, three Lindas) then Sara, and Beth. This being a non-profit organization, we all need to have one or more additional gigs on the side to make ends meet.  One is a local actor, one an elected official, one an advertising executive, one an actual musician!  A more different group of women you'd never find, but we do connect on one level... wine. Oh and the fact that we somehow manage to put on about 20 symphony and symphony-related concerts a year.  Sure, the musicians do play a part - but we make it happen!

It's a great place to work because there is no shortage of drama, and stories, and opinions and we have bonded closely over this past year and a half ... it's a shame I just gave my two weeks notice. More on that another time. 

Right now, I'll focus on the leader of this bevy of broads, my friend and boss, in the center (of course) Linda. I think I'll miss her most of all. She has endured probably the messiest and most grueling divorce I have ever witnessed. We've helped her through two of her soon-to-be ex-husband's suicide attempts; gutting and refurbishing basically every room in her house so it could be sold, and any number of minor by comparison disasters that seem to crop up.  Through it all, she's kept everything running, continues to administer a local soup kitchen and their fund raisers, actively participate on the school board, and the Symphony continues to thrive, AND, she's even lost 40 pounds to boot, so she looks fabulous.  I hate her.

From time to time, when one of us has something that keeps us from coming into the office, we send a group email explaining the situation.  These emails usually have the subject "This Morning." The ones from Linda can contain anything from news about the suicide attempts, to the house renovation details, to printer disasters the night before a concert, and about once a week - something disastrous that has happened to her car. Here is an example of the one from today: 
TO:  Symphony Babes
FROM: Linda
RE:  This Morning
Good morning Ladies and Quitter! (oh, yes, you'll be getting more of this in the next 3 weeks...)
 
I swear I should patent my ass and put it out for hire - for $100, I'll sit in the driver's seat of your enemy's car for one hour.
 
Apparently the mechanic hasn't solved the mystery of my car overheating yet. My son Keith and I made it to Oak Creek (to pick up pheasants for the soup kitchen fundraiser) when steam started pouring out of the hood. Coolant had boiled dry, we sat for quite a while to let it cool down after I got the cap off, then made it to a gas station to buy a gallon to dump in. Smoking again by the time we got home, so clearly it's time for me to wreck another one of Dani's rental cars.
 
I planned to come in early, work on the program, go to the Holiday Pops meeting with Jane and Theatre B, come back to the office for a bit more, then leave around 11:00 before I have to leave for Bemidji for my consulting gig. I think I'm just going to have to give the office a miss today, except to pop in for a few minutes. With all my adventures last night, I didn't get the stuff done that I needed to in order to be ready for this afternoon.
 
I think I am in good shape with the program, though. Roster and music pages are done, John will have his notes to me Monday, and now that I can cut/paste the donor lists, it will be pretty quick work. Ad pages are virtually done, so I think we will be ready for an actual test run Monday afternoon when they come in to install that part.
 
Posters - how many are left to take around? I didn't see one at Hornbachers Express last night, maybe someone could take that batch if that gal is not going to show. Also, PLEASE make sure there is one at the Plains and Green Market, BernieBernieBernie mentioned that on my FB wall, argh.
 
See you latah,L
Gosh I'm gonna miss them!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Dermatology

I went to a dermatologist for the first time today for a full body scan. I have some moles and suspicious looking freckles on the thin skin of my chest and my doctor thought I should have them looked at.

It is a wonder I haven't had anything serious crop before now, having grown up in sunny southern California basically on a rotisserie basted in baby oil.  Sure, I gave all of that up years ago, but things do come back to haunt you now and then.  

I fully expected serious tsk-tsk-ing, but the doctor and his assistant really didn't pay much attention to any one area.  All of those moles and freckles were apparently just that - moles and freckles.

Until....

He looked at a little bump between my eye and my nose that I had never even given a second thought.  In fact he looked at it with such concern I started to get worried.  More worried than I'd been about the moles and freckles.  He decided then and there to remove it and send it in for a biopsy.

I left with this.... lovely.




Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Transitions

I vowed for the month of November that I would document my daily life with pictures, and yet....


...here I sit at 10:42pm on a Tuesday... a day FULL to the brim of TRANSITIONS that I'm aching to share, yet, again,

...here I am, eating pecans, drinking wine, watching TV and trying to post something on my blog...  trying to make a connection with the first of November and all of the transitions that are taking place, or going to take place this month

...but did I take pictures today?  No.

Then I realized that one of my most recent posts pointed out that Autumn IS transition.... and you can't have a transition TO unless you have a FROM or a BEFORE.

...so here I am wallowing in Before-ness...


Oversharing


I have begun to realize that I'm starting to forget some details in my life.  Not the big chunks mind you - the stuff like where I live, my kids names, or my husbands birthday are still, for the most part, locked safely in my cerebrum.  Its just those pesky little things I'm starting to get fuzzy on.  Like what color my arch rival's prom dress was the night she stole the boy I was hoping would be my boyfriend.  Or what the weather was like the day one of the hunky football players split his pants in front of the whole school, trying to vault a chainlink fence at lunch.  Or just how embarrassingly long my bangs were, and short my pants were in 7th grade.  Sometimes, I just wish I had a taken a picture at certain points in my life, not necessarily so I could share it, but so I could refer back to it.

Alas, today, no one can ever hope to forget, even if they want to, the epic- or not so epic moments in their lives.  Digital cameras are everywhere, and digital sharing sites make it nearly impossible for you, or anyone else you know, or even people you don't know to be intimately aware of ephemera that would normally have become fuzzy details in a year or two, or twenty.  

I find that I need a theme for regular blogging, and now, I think I've found it.  Oversharing.  For the next 30 days, I'm going to document my details.  Starting tomorrow, I am going to take a picture per day of what someone wore, or the sky, of something beautiful, of something unfortunate, even something I'm thankful for - considering the month and all.  

All for your entertainment.  Will you join me?