Maybe there is something to this karma thing

August 29, 2010

In a moment of weakness on Friday, I posted about wanting extra insurance in case karma wasn't enough to make sure people got what they had coming to them. Mostly that was meant on the negative side. But karma also means good things can come around, as well.

So on Friday afternoon while I was swimming laps, always a fantastic head-clearing exercise, I made a choice to just let some hurts go and move on.

Friday night, I picked up Miss K from the airport, went to dinner and then was ready to call it a night. A friend texted me that Calexico was playing a free show. I looked at the clock. 8:30 p.m. on a Friday night. I had no good reason to NOT go. So I went. Knowing it was also one of Guy #3's favorite bands, I shot him a note. He had planned on going, but his cocktail-waitress girlfriend decided to work so he didn't. But since I was there, he decided to come out.

Once again, we agreed that we are really glad we are still friends. Once again more, we stayed out far too late. It tends to happen when we hang out.

Which leads me to yesterday. I woke up feeling *ahem* not terribly well. Around 1:00 p.m., I almost called my friends to cancel my appearance at a beer festival. However, I rallied and off we went.

Long story short, three guys asked me for my phone number over the course of the day. Total score. During my weekly phone call home, as telling this to MomH, she said, "What did you have written on your shirt??" Haha, thanks Mom. Actually, I was wearing my "I (cactus) PHX" shirt so perhaps that did contribute to me getting noticed.

— The writing of this post was interrupted as my first choice guy just called to confirm our dinner plans for tonight. This bodes well as I wasn't sure he'd remember meeting me now that it's the sober light of day. I shall call him Frenchie. He's French-Canadian. I will let him know this evening that I'm a big fan of poutine. 😀

Another guy kind of pissed off Miss K earlier in the night, but I thought he seemed all right. He discovered his phone was dead so I have his number to use or not, depending on how tonight goes. His friend was ungodly obnoxious. Luckily Blue Shirt Guy and I were finally able to chat without his woman-repellent friend hanging around. If tonight goes well, I still might call him.

Then there's Cubby. We'll call him that because he's 26, even though I'm not ready to be called a cougar. He called last night trying to convince to come over, as drunk 20-somethings are prone to do. I saw him earlier in the night but didn't talk to him until he vaulted over his booth and into mine at the cantina next door where we were having dinner. Vaulted. I was impressed. He's also an MD starting his residency in pediatrics at one of the hospitals in town. He's smart, charming, adorable and alas, 26. He says it doesn't matter to him. It does to me. There's a lot of growing up that still needs to take place. But Dr. Cubby is awfully cute…

All in all, it was a good day considering I almost bailed on the whole event. Also good because I had decided to clear out a lot of bad juju floating around in my brain. It seems to happen like that.

It was also a reminder that I should buy a few spare "I (cactus) PHX" t-shirts to keep on hand during dating droughts.

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When karma is not enough

August 27, 2010

When someone has wronged me, or has been just a straight up @sshole and has jerked me around, I usually write it off and console myself with the thought "karma will come back and kick you in the head someday. F*^ker."

But sometimes I really want to hedge my bets. Does anyone know of a good hex to make sure someone will take what they dished out?

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Rainy Days and Tuesdays

March 23, 2010

After a few beautiful days, it's a dark rainy morning again. So far this winter we've equaled the amount of rain we usually get in a year. Some people are sick of it, I love it. The oppressive sunshine will be beating down on our heads soon enough.

Yesterday was a feeding frenzy in the office. One group came in and tagged just about anything that wasn't moving. I made sure I didn't sit still for too long otherwise I might have been loaded up and taken to their office. Another gal came in from a tiny nonprofit and I showed her the bookshelves in my office. The ringleader of the other group rushed in and said, "We've already gone through and tagged everything in all the offices." I said, "Then you can spare a few bookcases."

She was not happy with me, but not nearly as unhappy as I was with her. Yes, I know we have to get everything out but to get greedy over our remains rubs me the wrong the way.

I also was feeling like I was losing my ability to cope. My lifelong skill at staying in control of my self-imposed crazy schedule is quickly eroding. Maybe I shouldn't have claimed victory over The Universe during my airport clusterf*&k.

Yesterday Miss K and were trying to get all set up for the trip to LA to apply for our visas to Brazil. Even though I looked for this information before and couldn't find it, there it was in big letters: your passport must be valid for six months after you entry and departure of Brazil.

My passport expires in September. I thought I was fine but now I'm not. We were going to LA on April 19 to apply but I won't have a new passport in time because I need it to go to Montreal. Which means I'll have to go to a passport agency that handles expedited passports. In Tucson. Yes. There is no passport agency in Phoenix. Maybe I missed it, but I couldn't see one. So on April 13, I'll drive to Tucson, pay the cost of expediting (which ends up being same price as a second passport), wait 2-3 weeks for it, then schedule my visa appointment, fly to LA, wait ten days and then go back to get it.

Last night as I was trying to figure all of this out, I was raging at myself for not being on top of things. Now I have to pay extra because of poor planning. Then I was thinking about everything else I'm paying for because of stupidity, like the two traffic tickets. I feel like I'm hemorrhaging money all of a sudden, all because I've lost control. Or at least that's what it feels like.

Then my College Roommate calls and wants me to schedule my Sedona timeshare for an October girls trip, which is fine. When I say that's cool, we may have the whole unit, she was all defensive about using the whole thing because that means the cost to her would be higher. I tried to explain to her that I've already paid for it and if I try to split it up, it cause me a great deal of difficulty in getting it used and then I'm throwing money down the drain. I still have two weeks I need to use up as it is. I may be frugal, but she's a tightwad. The kind that calculates the bill at a restaurant to the nearest cent as opposed to averaging out and rounding up. When we travel together, she keeps a spreadsheet of shared expenses. I suppose that could be okay, but to me it just means I'm more paranoid about money than I'd like to be on vacation. 

This morning I was ready to say, "Okay, Universe. I give. You win." Then the other voice in my head said, "WTF, Ames. You can handle this. Just take a time out and get everything in order. The Universe isn't going to beat you yet."

My little unexpected pep talk made me feel a little better. The dark rainy day also helps. I always feel more confident and secure during inclement weather. Guess that's my Michigan upbringing shining through the clouds.

I get to the office and start telling Fabulous Co-Worker Justin of all my travails and how I'm bleeding money. Then I notice that the packrats from yesterday already took our coffee maker. "OMG! Now I have to BUY my own COFFEE! See?! AAAUUGGGHH!"

Oh well. That just means I'll give Sam the Snack Shop Guy a dollar every morning for my coffee. He needs the business. Maybe it will buy me a little more karma. 

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Now for Some Fun Happy News!

March 4, 2010

I was one of 18 (out of 70+) presenters selected for Ignite Phoenix 6! Now I need to get cracking on my preso: Life Lessons I've Learned from Cows.

I have the outline and some photos. It'll be 5 minutes with 20 slides on a 15 second auto-rotation.

Here's what I have so far, in no particular order. These are just the main points, I'll have graphics and more explanation to go with all of these, of course.

Ruminate! When something is hard to swallow, chew on it for a while. (Biological lesson of four stomachs)
Celebrate Diversity – Everyone brings something different to the table. (Different dairy breeds have different milk compositions)
Be Curious – this where the Cow Curiosity Fail slide will come in handy. Most of the photos I use will be from the FamilyH archives, but I'll need to find other bits as appropriate
Be Punctual – dairy cows are creatures of habit and stick to a schedule
Seek first to understand – this goes with with this photo, and I'll talk about understanding other people's motivations so you can get them to do what you want.

Then there are pics of me and my lovely cow Dolly in our gangly awkward years. I thought that might be good just to say something along the lines of "value increases with age".

Then we have lots of photos of small children with big cows. If there's a kid leading a big cow, perhaps "Never underestimate the power of good leadership".

I might also touch on heirarchy/pecking order.

But that's it for now. Yay, me!

Oh – and went for Chinese food today at lunch. Here's my fortune: Strong convictions precede great actions.

Nice! I needed that!

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It Pays to Be Positive

March 3, 2010

It's been said "the only thing we can control is our attitude". I would quote that person who said it but I don't remember and I don't have time to look it up.

Along those lines, this is what happened to me when I flew out to San Diego a couple weekends ago.

BrownAmazon was supposed to be there for a conference but her travel was canceled. Since I had purchased a ticket and the airline was not going to credit my account unless I paid a change fee that was well above the cost of the ticket, I decided to go anyway. My friend Brad and his new bride Maggie were happy to host me. They're the ones who were married in La Jolla (and I wore the Purple Dress of Flattery).

So Saturday morning. It's pouring rain. I was running a little late out of my house, with no time for breakfast. That's fine, I'll grab something at the airport. It's only a 10-minute drive after all, and I'll be in the terminal within 15.

The freeway that goes to the airport is closed. SURPRISE! Shit. Now I have to drive all the way around to the other side of the airport and then back through to get to long-term parking. Fine. At this point I'm thinking, "Hey Universe, I know you are just testing me. But you know what, I'm going to be cheerful. Bring it."

Bring it, it did. I finally park, run through the rain to catch the shuttle, making me look like a drowned rat. We drive to the next stop. And stop. For seemingly an eternity. Really? This is when our driver needs to take a break?

No worries, no worries. At this time of day, I've never seen a line at Security. I'll breeze right through.

It was the longest line I've seen in years. YEARS! I laughed – "Good one, Universe, you sneaky dog, you. I'll show you. I'll make the best of the situation." So I people watched and came up with a Plan B. I also burst into song once in a while to practice next year's KttD selection. That made me happy. It also drew the attention of the cute guy in front of me in line. Bonus! 

But I digress: Plan B – take a later flight. My friends live close to the airport so I don't have to worry about them waiting after driving hours to meet me (like my family would need to). I have no real time I need to be there. It's only an hour flight. So TAKE THAT, Universe.

Thirty minutes later, I finally get to Security. I'm cheerful, I've been chatting up the guy in front of me, smiling and saying hi to other Security peeps – who were genuinely pleased with getting a smile for a change.

Me: "Good morning! How are you today?"
Security Gal: *laughs* "I'm living the dream! Living the dream! Have a great day!"

As I wait for the people ahead of me to put their stuff on the x-ray belt, I start to look at the gate signs. "Ha, I bet you I'm in the very last gate."

Then I notice that the couple in front of me is causing a commotion. He's trying to go through the metal detector with a big ass rodeo belt buckle and about 10 pounds of change in his pockets. And he's really, really confused about the whole thing, as if he just woke up from a dream. The wife is even more discombobulated, what with her yellow card that indicates she has a metal plate in her head or something. OMFG people! SERIOUSLY??

That's when I almost lost it. But I didn't. After another eternity of confusion, I broke through and yes – my gate was as far away from me as possible, 200 yards to the far gates where normally only long-haul flights are. As I sprint down the walkway and then make a turn to where the gates are, I hear "last call for San Diego, doors are closing". My flight was THE VERY LAST GATE in the terminal.

Dodging people who are unable to walk in straight lines, I break through and jump on the plane before the doors close. Standing there, disheveled, sweaty and out of breath, I start laughing. The flight attendant makes a comment about my condition and I say, "The freeway was closed, the parking lot bus driver took a break, security was a mile long, and this was the absolute farthest gate. But I'm here and I'm happy."

Flight attendant: "How would you like to sit here in front?"

First Class? Don't mind if I do!

Cheerfulness FTW!

I had many chances to lose my temper, especially since I was starving which makes me loopy, I decided I was going to see everything thrown in my path as a challenge. There was no way the Universe was going to win and make me spend negative energy on things I couldn't control. I was rewarded for it in the end and had a fantastic time with my friends. It was just what I needed.

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Deep Thoughts for Rainy Nights

March 23, 2007

Following this afternoon's storm was a period of gray skies, then a constant downpour. When I say a river runs through it, I mean there's a river where the street outside my condo used to be.

The rain is coming down hard outside and I have a very happy, purry Elvis kitty on my lap in my safe and cozy abode. But that's not what is on my mind. I'm thinking about the communal nature of umbrellas.

I pulled into my space a little while ago and reached around in my backseat for an umbrella to make it into my place with minimal dampness. (Did I mention it's pouring?) I found a beautiful travel umbrella that was not purchased by me. I looked at it and finally realized where it came from. A year ago, March 11 to be precise, I was at a wedding that had to be moved indoors due to the nastiest weather Phoenix had seen in a long time. Hail. Rain. Lightning. Flash flooding. The works. When I left the hall, the bride handed me an umbrella and said, "I have no idea whose this is, just take it." Granted, I was the last guest to leave (as per normal) so the rightful owner probably had someone else's umbrella.

I took an inventory of my closet and of the four umbrellas in my possession, I only purchased one myself. And that one was for $1 on the Strand in Shanghai. The lady wanted $2 but I wasn't that desperate, so she finally relented and sold it to me for half of her original asking price. Score!

This all takes me back to my college days, when you left your dorm room on a rainy morning with an umbrella and came back later in the day with a completely differently one. There must have been an unwritten rule that each student would donate an umbrella to be shared with the entire student population. To illustrate: I would leave my umbrella under my seat, because let's face it, we can only remember so many things at one time. It wouldn't be raining so why bother carrying it around, really. I would move on to a different classroom and by then, it might be raining again. What do I see? Another umbrella another student left behind for my use! Karma in action!

All good things come to those who leave good things for the benefit of all. Or something like that.

 

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