10, 9, 8, 7, 6........

It's nearly time for blast-off from the world of high stress, panic and chaos - a move I've been praying for and anticipating and planning for over a year. Then all my hard hearted determination fell apart yesterday when I broke the news to a little lady in a wheelchair and she took my hand in both of hers, crying her eyes out - "Oh no Sweetheart! What will I do without you?" Several of the patients cried, much to my shock, and one grizzled old guy has been inconsolable all week.
I am officially scum of the Earth and shrunken from 5'10" down to a full 2 inches tall.
In a meeting last week, my duties were split between the woman hired to replace me, and 8 other staffers. NINE people. What the heck??? How come I couldn't get so much as ONE assistant but now it's going to take nine??? Oh well.........

In September 2006 I met a docent in a museum 6 or 7 hours away from here. We hit it off immediately and gabbed like old friends for 30 minutes or so, then Hunny and I continued on our trip. Now it's a year and a half later, I get a call out of the blue from her - in the course of our conversation I had mentioned, (among a million other things!) that I was watching out for a Singer treadle sewing machine, in good usable condition. She not only kept my phone number all that time, but when someone showed up with one for sale she remembered me!! AND my phone number! Hastily written, as I remember, on the back of a business card. Amazing, just blew me away. Quilters are the most amazing people on earth. Will I get it? Not sure yet - that's several hundred bucks worth of gas in our truck for something that's not a sure thing, and suddenly that's a pretty expensive machine. Still --- it may be worth it to go see that gal and give her a big ol' HUG! Amazing....
We have a party packed weekend ahead, holy cow! Friday night is my going away party from co-workers, Saturday a party at my new employers house, Sunday a private day-long bluegrass music festival for 250 close friends, Monday a big party at DS and DDIL, and somewhere in there I have to go find my youngest son and birthday him all up. Retired for 2 days and flopped from exhaustion. The bluegrass fest is a fantastic relaxing day. I take some hand quilting and sit in a comfy chair under an oak tree next to the creek and listen to music all day. I always have lots of visitors who want to see the quilting and sit and chat - it's just a wonderful day, I can't wait. Yesterday I got a recognition award at a company luncheon in Old Sacramento, but the funnest part was that we made a bunch of wrong turns and got a stoplight tour of the capitol. The conversation went something like this:
"Where do I turn -- here?"
"Yes -- turn right"
"now?"
"YES!! Get over!"
"Wait -- "
"NO -- get over now!!"
"missed it. We'll just go up a block"
"You can't, it's all one way"
"No it's not, we can turn right here"
"Uh-huh, right into a parking lot!"
"Is this ninth st?"
"There's the Capitol building, so no it's not 9th"
"Look at all the cops! This has to be 9th"
"No, it's L street"
"Do you think Arnold is home?"
"Wait, that says P street"
"Q! It's Q street! -- you have to go left from here"
"Look - there's more cops"
"Please Lord, keep my hands off her neck"
"Hey - how'd we get back here?"
And so we drove all the way around downtown Sacramento. Twice.
It was a blast. Arnold, for non-Californians, is Arnold Schwarzenegger, also known to us as "The Governator" after his Terminator movies. We never did find out if he was around, but the presence of 284 cops might have been a clue.
I promise pictures this weekend - none today because my life is boring.....LOL!