Month: March 2013

The 2AM Photo

~ JodiLea ~ 2 Comments

A Creative Writing Challenge: It’s 2AM and your phone has just buzzed you awake, filling the room in white-blue LED light. You have a message. It’s a photo. No words, no explanation. Just a photo. Tell us all about it. And what happens next…

Emmy sleepily reached for her cell phone. It was flashing its LED light, and buzzing on the nightstand.  The display showed “You have a new message”, and the time it arrived – 2:00AM. No one she knew would send a text this late. Unless it was an emergency.

Now wide awake, she took her phone from the nightstand and displayed the message. There was no subject line, nor were there words – just an image.

The photo took her breath away, and filled her soul with a deep sadness. She stared at it, confused. Emmy had not seen the photo before, but remembered that day clearly. She and Jeff were in the National Forest, having a picnic lunch. Whoever took the picture must have had one heck of a zoom lens, Emmy thought.  It was the last time she saw Jeff. The tears that were brimming in her eyes, now spilled down her cheeks.
The deep pain rushed back to her, like a vengeful boomerang.

She had no idea who could have taken this photo.  And why would they send it to her now?

Emmy hit the “Reply” button and got an error message instead of the senders email address.

“Dammit!!” she swore loudly. Tracking down this person will not be easy.

– to be continued…

All Grown Up (Sort of)

~ JodiLea ~ 2 Comments

When did I first feel grown up?

When I traveled for the first time on official business.

Airplane Landing

I contacted one of our government contractors in St. Louis. I ordered products (digitized maps) from them and had a hard a time figuring out which ones we needed. My agenda was to tour their operations and give them comments about the trouble I had with ordering the correct maps. We needed them to make a product catalog that made sense.

So, I arranged a meeting to tour their operations and provide feedback.  My host  asked me to talk to his employees about how our team used the products they made. I told them I would be happy to. Yikes!  Now I had to write a presentation. Things were getting a bit complicated.

I scheduled the trip to coincide with my St. Louis cousin’s wedding. My dad  called this kind of thing – a “double-dookie”.  He would have been so proud.  This also saved my boss the hotel and parking costs by staying at my BFF’s place.

The day I flew into St. Louis I made my BFF and her son ride with me into the city and back. I knew I would be less nervous tomorrow if I practiced today.  The trial run went well and we made it home in time for supper.

After a sleepless night, I gulped coffee, triple checked my briefcase and asked BFF to pray for me – and off I went. I left early because I figured there would be massive commuter traffic, like in San Francisco. There wasn’t. So I’m an hour early.

I think I caused a bit of a panic for my host, but he was gracious and welcoming in spite of my early arrival. The agenda for the day was to meet with operations and see the catalog and graphics they were working on. Then lunch. My presentation would be the grand finale. Great.

I am the kind of person who prefers to “get things over with”.  Especially things that are freaking causing me stress. I had 1/2 a salad for lunch because my stomach was full of butterflies.

The conference room was packed.

Everyone in operations wanted to hear my presentation. They were even excited about it. Later, I found out that I was the first person to visit and show them how we incorporated their digitized maps into our computer software.

I could not believe how well my presentation went. Afterwards it felt like a press conference with all the questions the audience asked. I knew the answers to most of them. Some I promised to get back to once I returned home and asked the computer scientists.

I ended up having fun. In fact, I even started to feel like a savvy business woman. My confidence and ego swelled like my ankles on a hot day. I thought I was so awesome.

Until I got totally lost on the way home 😉

Sh*t Happens

~ JodiLea ~ 4 Comments

Whoever came up with the  “Sh*t Happens”  logo has to know us.

It’s been awhile since I have posted. Sh*t Happened. Again.

Last week, we were out-of-town attending a funeral.  While visiting with family over the weekend, hubby’s retina started to detach itself from his left-eye. He suspected this may be happening, because his other retina detached eight-years ago, and you tend to remember crap like that.

He had an emergency exam by a local Ophthalmologist, who told us that  we needed to get hubby home and into surgery, ASAP.

A dilemma because I can’t drive his big-assed truck.  Well… I suppose I could drive it, but it would be like “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride”. I have very little depth perception and a deep-seated fear of driving in places I don’t know.  My sense of direction is so bad that even with my GPS unit, “Tom”,  I still manage to get myself  lost.

Hubby’s sister, my hero, saved our butts by driving us home (a nine-hour drive). She drove all day Sunday, and on Monday she drove us to Stockton and then to Sacramento where the retinal surgery center was.

It was a tricky surgery – his detached retina had 5 rips in it. His surgeon explained to us hubby’s eye was filled with oil, to help keep the retina in place while it healed. In 3-4 months they will remove the oil during his second surgery.

Say WHAT??? Monday’s surgery will cause a cataract to grow in his eye.  How lovely.  Something to look forward to this summer.

Once home, we tucked hubby into bed. The retinal re-attachment surgery is the first step to healing. Now hubby has to lay face down 3-5 days to keep the oil  floating against the retina to make it heal in place. His back already is killing him from being in that position.

So – hubby’s hurting, sleep deprived, and bored out of his mind. Can’t read or watch TV. No morning walks. He is also suffering withdrawal from his Sudoku puzzle addiction. This is not a happy time for him. Or his wife.

Oh man, is he grumpy!

To compound his grumpiness, I keep nagging reminding him to keep his head bent down, and annoying him by trying to anticipate his every need. I’m probably on his last nerve, and it’s only post-op day 3.

Yet – he wants to go to the Post Office with me tomorrow. ‘Just to get out of the house’, he says. I know it’s really because he thinks I’ll get lost.  I may not have driven in this town or anywhere since last July when we moved in.

However, I think I can find my way down the mountain better than a blind guy.   Then again, sh*t happens.