refections from a black friday virgin...

I work at a company that has to work on black Friday. No 4-day weekend, just turkey day off, then back to work on Friday. This has always been my reason NOT to shop black Friday. This year I decided to check it out. My daughter and her friends go every year, they love it. I love to people watch, I love shopping, I love Christmas. Seemed like a perfect match! I don't work until 7:30, and the stores open at 5, so why not?

So at 3:30am, I awoke, my daughter already dressed and ready to meet her friends. Why rush? They don't open until 5! I made some breakfast, packed my work bag, and headed out the door at 4:30. AM. (important not to forget that this is 4:30 in the MORNING.) I live 20 minutes from the nearest town with sales, so I hopped in the truck (BIG TRUCK - important to remember this fact for later), and headed out on the highway. It didn't take long for me to realize that I had joined an exodus of cars leaving our little country town and heading in to the sales. The highway was LOADED, all going in one direction, and one direction only. TO THE STORES! I smiled to myself, thinking how fun this was going to be. Why hadn't I done this every year?

My daughter's first stop was Target, to get none other than MY present from my husband (a neat little trick - he pays her to do his shopping on black Friday - she loves it - AND gets paid, he doesn't have to do the shopping - I get awesome presents for Christmas!). I thought I would meet her there, as there were a few movies I wouldn't mind getting. As I approached the parking lot, it appeared I might have a hard time finding a parking place. Not just a parking place but one that I could fit my BIG TRUCK into. The ENTIRE lot was full. It's not 4:50am. AM! The line of people waiting to get into Target was wrapped around two full sides of the building, and there were no parking places! Needless to say, I kept driving. Onto the next store~!

So I headed to Shopko, texted my dd, who, ON CRUTCHES, was still fighting the crowds at Target. She is obviously more of a woman than I! Still happy just to be out and about on this crazy morning, I grabbed a cart, nothing in particular I needed, and started "shopping". I quickly realized that you don't "shop" on black Friday. You protect your life. I'm pretty much an optimist. I figure that if I'm nice to people, they'll be nice back. If I'm polite, they're polite. YEAH. Not so much anymore. I've heard the stories, I don't live under a rock, but I was SHOCKED at how rude people can be! I'm truly thinking that there are a LOT of people out there who really don't know the true meaning of Christmas! It's NEVER ok to be rude to strangers like I saw today! Once I realized this, I decided I wasn't really in the mood. I did pick up a gift for my hubby, which was on sale (70$ off!), so I justified my morning for that. and decided to go to Target to see how my daughter was doing.

Driving into the Target lot, there STILL weren't ANY parking places! It's now 5:30am, and people are leaving, but more are coming! I decide to head to the mall. No one ever goes to our mall, so I figured I would have better luck there. And I did. Younkers had a sale on Columbias, and my dd wanted one - the least I can do for her knowing what hell she is enduring to get my present from my hubby. She calls, she's standing in line (has been since 5:18, and it's now 5:45), says I should try now to come see her. At this point, I am unsure of any logical thinking, I've lost my hope in humanity, and have realized that I have the most amazing job in the world (as it kept me from this madness for the last 17 years!).

So I once again get in my truck (MY BIG TRUCK) and venture out onto the main drag. Wiser this time, I drive around the back of the building and find a spot. It's now 5:55am, and I'm parked at Target. Wow, that only took one hour! Cool. (sarcasm folks). I walk the two blocks to the store, and go to the back for those movies I thought would make a nice gift to find that of course they are gone, no rain checks. The lines in the store literally circle THE ENTIRE store. I find my dd quite close to the front and stop to chat, with her, and several friends I ran into. She is amazing. Even on crutches, she loves the rush of black Friday.... i don't know that i'll ever go back.

Maybe I'm not Ready for this!

Tonight finds me once again alone in the house. As my children get older, this seems to happen time and again, more often with each month. I cherish these little glimpses of solitude. I cherish them.

I was surprised to find myself on the brink of quiet tonight. With my husband off work, it was the farthest thing from my mind. When I got home from work and began dinner, I found that they were going to go scope out the hunting land, with the upcoming weekend being my son's first youth hunt.

Soon after they left, with the chicken and summer veggies on the stove, and the rice in the microwave, the timer for the microwave went off. I opened the microwave only to find it empty. Completely empty. No pan of rice anywhere to be found. I knew I'd filled the pan. I remembered measuring it out. But where was it?

The mystery uncooked rice was on the dresser in the entryway. I had cooked the paper cover in the microwave for an entire five minutes. The rice remained uncooked.

Maybe I'm NOT ready for empty nest!

a crisp fall sunrise

One of my favorite times of day occurs when I get in the car to head to work. I have a 20 minute highway commute, and it's a time of reflection, a time to start the day. On very special mornings, I am able to see a beautiful sunrise, a sign of God's love for us. And today was one of those days. As I hit the highway heading west, I saw the scarlet sky in my rear view mirror. Just beginning to come over the horizon, I watched as the sunrise colored the trees from top to bottom, like filling in the paint on a water color. As the sunrise hit the tops of the changing trees, it exploded into oranges, and reds, and golds. Just before I turned to head north, I looked up to see the colors reflected in the arms of a windmill. What an amazing picture it was, what a glorious way to start the day.

in retrospect...

This weekend brought bittersweet feelings - the happy of watching my daughter on homecoming court, enjoying her senior year - and burying a very close aunt who passed away at the amazing age of 83. Four days filled with highs and lows, happy and sad.

My uncle and aunt had an amazing life together, married almost 63 years. One of those ridiculously happy - soulmate kind of marriages. While it was very hard to watch him remember, and then to say goodbye, it was obvious in looking at all the pictures that they had such a happy life together.

My favorite picture (if I can get it scanned, I will post) is of them at a dance. I'm guessing somewhere like the Silver Dome Ballroom. They're sitting at a banquet table, a bottle of 50/50 soda on the table next to them. My uncle has his arms around her shoulders, and they are just SO in love. It's one of those moments caught on film. Ageless.

Many people comment on the relationship I have with my DH, stating that we are very compatible, very happy, and just enjoy being with each other. And I can honestly say that is true. I feel closer to him with every year we are together - more in love. These last few months have been trying. For no particular reason. But we've been, should I say, taking each other for granted? The spark has not been there. And I think that seeing my uncle talk about his life with his wife, and seeing those amazing pictures, was all we needed to bring ourselves back to normal.

A lesson to us all. We will argue, we will disagree. But in the end, if our lives are caught on film, it's the happy times we want to capture. It's those times we need to focus on. and live for.

what does this mean?

I just came from a 2 hour meeting that I was facilitating. In my head, throughout the entire meeting, it was being held from 2:30-4:30. I rushed to get people out on time, so they wouldn't have overtime. I marveled that people in the hall were making dinner, staying so late to work they needed to eat dinner at work. I was very impressed that people were gathering to go for walks after work, not rushing home, but rather taking time out for exercise with coworkers. I knew people had carpools to get to, so I didn't want to keep them late. I was so frustrated with myself - why hadn't I turned down the computer before coming? At this late hour, I could have gone straight home, rather to the other building.

Imagine my surprise, when getting in my car, in seeing the clock read 12:09.

Yep. It was a 10-12 meeting.

In all those "clues" I didn't pick up on my mental error.

Good thing I didn't go straight home....

Think it's time to talk to the doctor about some medication? :-)

why I love him.....

Our trips to Sturgis always seem to rejuvenate our marriage, our relationship, and our love. It's a chance to put the responsibilities of home and family aside for a few days and focus on us, on each other, and on our life together.

This year seemed to bring a multitude of options for me to be reminded of reasons why I love Ken. It started in Chamberlain, day two, when the camper battery went dead. He didn't think twice about running into town and changing it. That may not seem like much, but to someone as non-mechanical as I, it means the world to me that he doesn't even worry about things like that, he just takes care of it.

Soon after the battery was changed, he noticed the gas refrigerator wasn't lighting, just continually clicking. While I thought our week was ruined along with our food, he simply took the back off, checked it out, and fixed it. Again, his ability to think through things like that always amazes me, and makes me wonder what I would do without him.

Having changed the batter and fixed the fridge, we headed on our second leg of our journey. Within an hour, he was pulling off the side of the interstate because we had blown a tire on the camper. Interstate traffic, under construction, and a road-side tire gone. I was in full panic mode. But he, predicting any needs he might have, had packed the big floor jack, and honestly, within fifteen minutes he had the spare on and we were back on our way. If it ever phased him that heavy interstate traffic was speeding by his head, he never let it show. I don't know if I've ever admired him quite as much as I did that day.

We all tend to take so much of our partners for granted. Both sides of the fence. It's trips like this that remind me not to do that. Be thankful for all they do, thankful for having them in your life.

grasshopper guts are bright yellow-green...

Just one of my observations from this year's jaunt to Sturgis for the 69th annual rally. We've done the rally four times - and NEVER found the grasshoppers to be such a problem! We take the back way into our campground - through the country - and found when reaching camp that the camper was loaded with grasshoppers. It didn't end there.

I had grasshoppers hit my ear, my forehead, my forearm (left a mark!), and my legs. The bike was so full of grasshopper inards that when sitting at stoplights, or in line, we could smell them baking onto the engine. Every year there is something that sticks out, this year, the bright yellow-green of ill-fated grasshoppers on my shoes, my pants, and everything we owned....