Table Topics

Amongst my friends, I'm known for my table topics. What is a table topic you ask? Well, when a group of folks are sitting around a table, usually over a meal, and there is no interaction, I bust out with a table topic. An area of discussion that will surely ignite the quietest of folks to open up and share. I love table topics! My friend, Amy, says she despises small talk, and I second her on that one. I can talk about the weather and the latest TV show with a stranger on the elevator. If I'm breaking bread with you, I'd hope we'd have some stimulating conversation.

So, I'm begining what I hope to be the first of many virtual table topics. I'll throw out a question and/or topic and allow the audience to discuss. I'll throw out my two cents (or $5) worth to get the ball rolling. In the offline game of table topics, I never throw out a topic I can't start. Just to spice it up a bit, I'll tag some fellow bloggers in hopes to get the virtual world engaged and get some shameless links back to my blog. The first question is....

If you could relive a time or event in your life, what would you choose?

Here are my top five in no particular order...

1. Play in my childhood backyard on my swingset. I LOVED my swingset. As an only child, I had to amuse myself. My swing was equipped with a teeter totter, four-seater swing (no only child jokes here), slide, and two individual swings. I loved to swing so high it would tump the set out of the ground. When the paint began to wear thin, my Dad repainted it a candy cane red and white. He spray painted the whole thing white, then taped it off and sprayed red paint on top to give it the candy cane look. It was the coolest thing. My Dad is and will always be the coolest.

2. Spend the day with my Mom doing anything. I loved spending time with Mom, no matter what the venue. We could spend days driving all over town - taking the long way home - or I could enjoy a day full of making crafts with her. Or even sitting in the backyard shucking corn or breaking beans and her saying "Your Father forgets how much trouble fresh vegetables are sometimes." Or playing a game of Scrabble, or working the daily crossword puzzle. Anything. It always was the best of times and at some point my Mom would speak her mind pretty forthrightly or laugh until we all had to take a potty break.

3. Write letters to my Aunt Stella. She was my Dad's oldest sister and lived in Michigan. We were pen pals. I never knew my Grandma Booth, so Aunt Stella sort of served as Aunt and pseudo Grandma. I would visit her every summer and she'd take me to many cultural things in the area and always had our week planned out. All year long we'd write letters back and forth of what we were doing and how our weeks had been. This was long before e-mail, so we actually pulled out pen and paper and used stamps (gasp!) to communicate. She was a sharp businesswoman and very well traveled. I'd love to write her about a 1000 page letter today and get her advice on many, many things.

4. Spend the day with my Aunt Linda. She was actually my Great Aunt, but who's counting? She lived in Bullitt County on a farm and when I was young that seemed like a very long trek. In the summer, Mom and I would drive out to spend the day with her and my Aunt Mimi (Aunt Linda's sister). We'd spend the day doing various things....visiting her neighbors, picking blackberries, making jam, quilting, crocheting, listening to stories. I don't know who loved going out there more, me or Mom. We'd always have a 2pm lunch/supper that was a spread. And it always included Aunt Mimi's yummy potato salad.

5. Spend the day with my Granny. The only grandmother I knew was my Mom's Mom. She was the epitome of independence. She never learned to drive, but knew how to get anywhere on TARC. I loved her cute little house. Just big enough for her, but large on love. I loved to go over there on Sundays after church and play in her backyard, or just rock on her little front porch. Or go over there anytime and watch her sew (she was a seamtress by trade) or cook. Mmm, to have her fried chicken and battercakes again. (Battercakes = Cornbread cakes) And, her iced tea was the best in the land. My first manicure was given to me by my Granny who said, "Let's just put on real light pink polish and your Dad will never notice."

Now it's your turn...discuss. And, I'll tag Katrina, Alisa, and Amy. Even if you aren't tagged, feel free to post on your own blog or the comment section here.

Anatomy Lesson

Before the dawn on Monday morning, I headed out of my house to the gym. Loaded down with my purse, my gymbag, and my backpack for work, I could have used an extra pair of arms. This is a normal occurance in my life as I usually leave the day loaded down with everything I'll need since I rarely make it home before bedtime.

As I walked out my house door to my garage, I managed to squish my left middle finger in the door. I am somewhat accident prone, but I go through this routine daily, so I was surprised that this one day I managed to get my finger caught between the door and the doorframe. "Squish" sounds a lot nicer than how it felt. I immediately was brought to tears from the jolt of pain I felt soaring through my finger and quickly checked for blood. Nothing, thank goodness. But feeling my heartbeat through every throb was excruciating. How can such a small part of my body cause that much pain?

The realization of the importance of that third finger became imminently clear. Merely touching it was painful. Yet, I could barely do anything without touching it. Loading up my bags in my trunk..ouch. Getting dressed and undressed at the gym...ouch. Rolling down my window at the drive-thru at the bank...ouch. Typing on my computer keyboard...ouch. Of course, a smart person would have immediately put ice on it for 30 minutes to keep the swelling and bruising down, but not me. No blood...I'm moving on. After a couple of days, my finger and fingernail is still bruised, but the soreness is wearing off. But, that first day was a killer.

Normally I'm not a wimp and have a very high tolerance for pain but I guess the very focused location made it seem worse than it was. And, I realized how thankful I am for 10 working fingers.

It reminded me of the scripture in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 24-26...

"But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. "

...and how in the body of Christ, when one person suffers, we all suffer, yet we all rejoice when one part is honored. It's a reminder to me to be an encourager to those who are hurting and be the other "finger" to hold them up. And, when something happens to cause us to rejoice, remember to put those fingers and hands together and celebrate!

Death of a Headset

A few weeks ago I wrote about a week full of everything breaking and promised the follow up story of the death of my cell phone headset. Before I tell that story, I'd like to report that since that post those nice pink girlie sunglasses have broken. Yep, no kidding. So, I'm now sporting a sturdy pair of blue-tinted Foster Grants. I certainly hope these last longer than a month or I'll go broke keeping the sun out of my eyes.

My cherished Winnie the Pooh keychain also bit the dust this week...but I digress...

Cell phone headsets. T-Mobile, my provider, is gracious enough to supply a free wired headset with every phone purchase. This is a great bonus for me because prior to that added benefit, I'd buy a headset so I could easily chat on the phone while driving. I find myself in my car a lot and I can maximize the drive time by making phone calls. But, I like to be handsfree so I can keep both hands on the wheel. The downside of these headsets is their tethering wire. I leave them in the car, simply because that is the main environment for usage, but because of the long wire, they end up everywhere in my car. In the floorboard. Wrapped around my gear shift. Hanging from my rearview mirror. Strategically dangling between seats. I yank that sucker out of the phone when I leave my car and the poor headset ends up wherever it lands.

This type of behavior is obviously not healthy for Mr. Headset. Usually he would meet his demise in some grisly way....stepped on while exiting or entering the vehicle...drug out of the car while clinging on my purse straps....it was never a pretty sight. After its life ended, I'd head back to the T-Mobile store to procure another headset and prayed it lasted longer than my previous ones. Maybe I need a course in the care and feeding of a headset.

So, a few weeks ago, during my week of breakdowns, I left my office and headed to the parking garage. As I loaded up my car and prepared for the drive home, I didn't plug in my headset right away. I had a nice leisurely drive ahead of me...no phone calls..no interruptions...just the sound of 80's music flowing through my radio speakers. As I turned out of my garage and headed down First Street to Market, I heard the funniest noise. It sounded like a crushed cola can was hung up in my wheel area. Before I made it to the first stoplight, it hit me. My headset. A terrible visual entered my head. Mr. Headset #65 was about to meet his doom. Once I stopped at the light, I began feverishly searching for the headset and found it! Well, part of it. I followed the tether and found that it was snuggly closed in my car door. I opened the door to quickly retrieve it, hoping the plug portion of the headset is what was flailing in the wind. Much to my dismay, it was the earpiece. Or what was left of it. I hummed a few bars of Taps and accepted the fact Mr. Headset's life was over.

The next day I decided to put this terrible cycle to an end. I headed to T-Mobile and invested in a wireless blue-tooth headset. Not only can I freely move about while it's connected, but it can fit comfortably in the side pocket of my car door. Plus, it will work with any blue-tooth handset, so it should outlive even my phone.

So far so good. I'm enjoying my wireless freedom and the sturdiness of my headset. If it falls off my ear and flies out the window, I may just give up my cell phone completely.

To E-mail or Not To E-mail

As the summer vacation season comes to a close, I've decided to pose a question to my blogging audience.....

"While on vacation, do you check e-mail or not?...if so, do you do that freely or are you compelled to do so because of your job?"

I took my vacation in August and was gone just a week from work. I am very tethered to my work e-mail as I can log in from home 24 hours a day just as if I'm sitting in my office. But, when I go on vacation, I just don't want to keep my computer as an appendage. When I returned to work from my vaction, I had over 300 e-mails to sort through, not to mention the ones that were automatically sorted for me, thanks to the Outlook Rules I have set. Granted, some of those 300 e-mails weren't important or easily deleted, but the mere fact that I had to go through them was time-consuming. Then, add to that my personal e-mail accounts I had to check and I'd guess I sorted through 500 or more messages by the time I finished. In fact, I had an e-mail request from a friend on LinkedIn that I just found yesterday that was overlooked in my shuffling of vacation e-mail.

I've polled some of my co-workers and it's a mixed bag of responses. Some prefer to take 15 minutes a day while on vacation to check e-mail, put out fires, and have peace of mind. Others prefer not to touch it at all and just enjoy their time away (that would be me). Still others have mobile devices that make it easy for them to check e-mail while on the go. And, there are a few who end up in locations where internet access is difficult to obtain. Although, one of my co-workers went to Fiji and was able to check e-mail at least once a day. There is just something non-relaxing about that, I think.

So, what do you do? And is what you do what you prefer or just a compulsory task brought on by the never-ending flow of information that trickles down our computer screen?

Discuss.

Surely?

I received a link to this video last week and this little girl is about the cutest thing I've seen in a long time. When I was little, I used to sing an old hymn called "Surely Goodness and Mercy" based on the passage in Psalm 23. I don't know that I was as cute as this little girl, but I know my Dad has it recorded somewhere on an old reel-to-reel tape. The title of this blog will make sense once you watch the video...