Ice Cream In Heaven

Life is like ice cream. No wonder why Rocky Road is my favorite flavor. Who says that something rocky cannot also be something sweet and pleasurable. No one was ever promised an easy life. You get out of life what you put into it. Sometimes that means taking a rocky path. People just seem to assume that a rocky path is an unhappy one. Quite the contrary. Most times, a rocky path gives you more satisfaction, when you reach your goal. Just like rocky road ice cream. I love the sweetness of the chocolate, the crunch of the nuts and the stickiness of the marshmallows. While eating it, a nut usually gets stuck in my tooth or a marshmallow clings to my palate. It takes a moment to clean things up and I enjoy another spoonful. Life is not always easy but in the end the sweetness remains. I just hope there is ice cream in heaven.

Hair Raising

We all get it. That one day when our hair looks great. It usually falls on the day before a haircut. All month we comb and style our hair and it looks good. But on that one day, it looks great! I used to be fooled by this. I would cancel my hair appointment. I thought that since my hair looked so good, why cut it. Then I would wake up the very next day, and it was as if my head turned into cotton candy. A puff of unmanageable mange. By then it was too late. There were no appointments for a week. I had to go into the world looking horrible.I am smarter now. I don't fall for Mr Good Hair Day.

Head of the Class

I recently attended a driving class with my sister and brother-in-law. We all get along so well, but each of us has their own personality. When we entered the classroom all of us went towards the row we wanted to sit in. We ended up in 3 different places. My sister was standing in front of the first row. I was in the middle and my brother-in-law was at the last row. Each of us was telling the rest to come sit in the row they had chosen. It reminded me of a movie theater. People have their own reason for choosing the place they feel most comfortable sitting. It reflects their personalities. My sister is a front row person. She is a teacher and wants to make sure she hears everything that is being said. I am a middle of the road person. I like to blend in, so a middle row suits me well. My brother-in-law is a fun person. Just like in high school, the fun people always sat in the back so they could joke around. We finally decided to sit in the first row with my sister. I guess, in the end, we all listen to the teacher.

Fall into Autumn

Is it Fall or is it Autumn. The other three seasons are clear. This is the only one that has an alias. I guess people started calling it Fall due to the falling leaves. I realized it was heading into the Fall season by one true sign. Not the leaves. Not the school buses. It was the signs on every corner that said "Flu Shots". When did flu shots become a sign of the times. I guess it was the year when they were scarce. It seems that someone made a bad "batch" and a recall was done. I never understood that one. Was someone stirring the flu pot and stepped away for a minute. Or did a co worker come by and add more stuff to the batch. Whatever it was, there was not enough flu shots to go around. I was one of the people affected. That year I actually got my shot in another state. I was on vacation and saw a sign in a pharmacy. I was so glad to get the shot that I didn't mind my arm hurting for 2 days. I was not really even sure who gave me the shot. It could have been a stock boy. This year I feel secure. Flu shots for everyone!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Last week, I received a letter from the US Postal Service. They asked me to participate in a study. They have contracted IBM to survey households in regards to their mail service. Considering that I get my mail at 6pm every day, I was not the best choice. Each day, I am to log in to an account that they have set up for me and let them know how many pieces of mail I get. Then I need to tell them how many pieces have "smart codes". Those are the uneven bar codes on the bottom of the envelope. The other type of bar codes are even on the bottom. I wonder...are those ones called dumb codes? I will be sent a scanner to log in these pieces. Then, if I do the job right, they will send me a gift card. I am not sure why IBM had to be called in for this. Maybe to waste millions of taxpayer dollars. We seem to be running out of ways to squander Americas' bank account. So now, I get to add the title of Mail Reporter to my resume. Too bad the title doesn't come along with a promotion and a raise.

I See The Light

I love the change of seasons. I hate the change of times. I have been spoiled. For the past few months, when I wake up, at about 6am, the sun is brightly shining through my window. I feel energized and jump out of bed, ready to start the new day. As summer comes to a close, I see a shift in the sun. It rises later and sets earlier. That is where the problem comes in. Now, when my alarm goes off, it is no longer sunny. I open my eyes to darkness. I feel as if I am a night worker. Even though the time I have spent sleeping is the same, I feel tired and have no energy to "get up and go". Of course, after a few minutes I perk up, but I still hate that feeling of having to get out of bed versus wanting to get out of bed. I do not know how people on the other side of the planet deal with living in darkness for 20 hours of the day. I guess your body has to adjust. I was once told that I have a sunny personality. I guess that is true, but not in the same sense that it was said.

Noise Pollution

I was driving home from work yesterday and stopped at a traffic light. I was second in line at the light. It didn't look like there was a person in the car ahead of me. I could not see their head, but I knew they had to be there. All I saw was a hat. It was a "turn on red" light and everything looked clear, but they did not move. The cross street was a large intersection that led from a curve in the road. I did not honk my horn, because I know that the first person at the light sees the roadway different from the one behind him. After about 15 seconds of waiting, a car that was at least four behind me started to honk his horn. Not just a tap, but a holding down, angry honk. He did not take his hand off his horn for the full two minutes that it took the light to turn green. I wondered how much anger this person had to have inside them to inflict such noise on everyone else. In all of the years I have been a driver, no one has ever acted like this. I was glad that I was not siting in the car with that nut. I could only imagine how loud he could yell.