January and February of 2010 were bad months for me. I was constantly fighting colds and could not have two days in a row without one of them being full of sniffles or body aches. In March I decided enough was enough and I went to Costco to invest in vitamins. Now I take the following daily:
Vitamin B
Vitamin C
Vitamin D w/ Calcium
Omega 3
One-A-Day
My days of wellness lasted from March through September, I was impressed! However, after one chilly night in our Bruges apartment, I got a cold and struggled for weeks to fight off the sickness. About two weeks ago my cough finally subsided and I believe it is finally gone. Traveling is always the best way to contract some kind of mutant cold virus that ends up massacring your immune system and making the outside of your nose all red, sore and dry.
Only 1 week after returning to work after my European vacation, my boss took a business trip for about 5 business days, leaving me to suffer through a horrible Monday all by my lonesome. It took me a while to get some free time to myself to update my blog and let you all know how wonderful my trip was. But here goes…
Our trip started in Paris, France. We stayed in an apartment we were renting for a week and it was incredible. Every morning we got up, ate croissants we bought the night before and then headed out for day trips.
Tonight, I will be taking a red-eye flight
from Los Angeles to Manchester.
Probably have a couple hours layover
in a U.S. city along the way.
I will be tired from trying (and failing)
to get sleep on the plane.
I will be smelly from walking
around multiple airports
over a span of 12 hours in the same clothes.
I will be restless in an aisle seat, waiting
for my planes to take off and land.
I will be anxious in the stuffy shared air
as my fellow passengers and I tap
our fingers and our feet in anticipation.
We will politely push and shove each other
out of our way like cattle out of a cage.
I will wave my arm and hand in the air and
smile at my mother when she comes
to pick me up from the Manchester airport.
I will hug her and smell her momma smell
and let her arms wrap around my soul.
In late August as we exit
the air conditioned indoors,
I will no doubt be smacked in the face
by the thickest of humid air.
My eyes will feast
on the New Hampshire surroundings,
taking in all the lush greenery
as we drive towards Northwood.
I will delight in seeing
my childhood home in the distance.
We will swiftly approach the outdoor cage
enclosing a Black Lab and
larger-than-life-horse-sized-Chesapeake Bay retriever.
Their tails will wag and
their barks will bite the air.
Hopefully silence will fill the air
as I exit the car and approach the pups
while calling their names.
I will lug my suitcases from the trunk of the car
to the guest room inside.
My bedroom upstairs
will be calling my name as I climb the stairs.
Pink carpet will embrace my feet
when I reach the end of the hallway.
Printed pink hearts and plaid wallpaper
will close in around me.
I will flop on my bed and hear the creaks
I have memorized over the years
from sleeping and tossing and turning.
My arms will open and fall to the side.
My eyes will be blinded by the clang and clatter
of cluttered walls and desks,
bureaus and vanities, closets and shelves.
Inside my childhood room, my closet
is still full of my old clothes
and my mom’s new outfits.
My bureau’s drawers still hide
socks and jeans, pajamas and tank-tops.
I will pull my the stool out
from underneath the vanity.
I will sit and look into the mirror
at my pink surroundings.
I will remember when and where
I got every single trinket and picture
now dressing my walls.
Most of the Elvis memorabilia I collected
all of my life has already been shipped
to my home in California.
I will still take a gander and try to find
something I can bring back with me.
I will prepare a care package for myself,
carefully wrapping figurines and ornaments.
Sitting Indian-style on the floor,
I will sort through my bookshelf.
Removing invaluable pieces of literature
that I need on my bookshelf in California.
I will locate French-to-English dictionaries
to bring on our European vacation.
I will undoubtedly pause to flip
through photo albums, sparking memories
I thought were long gone.
I will kneel in front of the desk
in my childhood room, sliding open drawers
and exploring cubby holes.
Finding things I thought
I would never need, but saved anyway.
Thinking now that I have a use
for these long lost treasures.
I will reach underneath my bed
and pull out clear containers.
They are full of nick-nacks and diaries,
photographs and stuffed animals,
erasers and note pads.
I will try to obey my mother
and find some things to get rid of,
but probably fail and put everything
back in its place.
I like being better at the elevator than everyone else.
I work on the fifth floor in a six-floor building that houses office space and suites for various different companies. I have no reason to go up to the sixth floor and it’s not like that floor is on the way to the fifth floor where I work, so I am convinced that the sixth floor is empty. I think that no one even works up on that floor and that there are no offices, plants, receptionists or bathrooms. I think that if I actually went up to the sixth floor, the elevator doors would open and all I would see is vacant, untouched office space that stretches out to all four walls and every window had a great view.
Whenever I get in the elevator, ever since I started working in this office building, I enjoy hitting the number 5 and seeing it illuminate. I silently laugh to myself at how lame everyone else is because they did not work on the fifth floor like I do, they worked on the third or the fourth floors, or even worse, the second! Who on Earth rides the elevator if they work on the second floor??? You are already on the first floor, just take the stairs! How lazy can you be!?
Yesterday, when I got in the elevator and hit 5, I was immediately saddened when the gentleman next to me hit 6. All of a sudden he looked like the most powerful, smartest person in the world! I was jealous! He got to work on the highest floor in the building! I dropped my head, kept my eyes to the ground and when the elevator dinged signalling that we had arrived at the fifth floor, I trudged out the doors leaving the all powerful sixth floor worker to ride up to his vacant office space.
If you know me at all, you know I LOVE VAMPIRES! So entitling this post “Vampires Suck” is hard for me. But I must say, I LOVE that this movie is ripping on the Twilight Saga…see trailer below!
I have this recurring nightmare that I have to go back to high school. In this awful dream, I have no friends and have to start at the beginning: the dreaded freshman year. In this dream I am at a Sophomore level, but I get pulled back to the freshman classes and it is incredibly embarrassing. I hate this dream and always wake up believing that I am actually back in NH, still attending CBNA. This feeling always wears off after a few minutes of me working out reality in my head and then I get this wonderful feeling of relief that I am no longer a teenager (thank goodness!) and no longer have to go to any kind of school or classes or do homework or sit alone at lunch.
dark pictures
broken memories
shoved in a box of wine
organize my fridge
put the milk next to the butter
crusty outlines of water bottles
clear shelves
slide out and wipe clean
chilly air frosts compartments
close the door
keep it all inside
