Still Surprising Me (After All These Years)

September 18, 2015 ~ JodiLea

(Hubby did something this month that completely shocked and delighted me! It has been a very long while since this gal has been delighted. I felt like a little girl.
I feel like a new bride because I keep admiring my engagement/wedding ring every couple minutes. It’s so shiny and gorgeous again. It had been broken, dull & diamond-less since 2011 when a prong came loose and the diamond fell out. It happened quietly and I did not know exactly when it happened. It most likely broke at work. Despite my co-workers, the building custodian, and myself crawling around with flashlights like CSI’s, I never saw it again. Until yesterday.

The FedEx guy, Mike, brought hubby a package. Hubby handed it to me and said, “Happy Anniversary”. I had no clue what could be in there, but I was so excited. He was giving me an anniversary present! I can’t remember the last year he did that! In fact, I had not found a gift for him before we were evacuated (the Butte Fire was heading our way), and frankly, I forgot about it.

So, here is this FedEx box, for me, from him. I did not open it immediately. I wanted to savor the moment of having a gift to open. To those who have a spouse that does not express themselves on special occasions (Valentine’s Day, Anniversaries, your birthday…) you know what I’m talking about. To those who are lavished with gifts and attention – never take it for granted!

Okay – now I’m ready to open the box…

Inside, was another FedEx box, also completely sealed.

How strange. Guess what I found in the second FedEx box? No, not another box. It was a UPS padded envelope.

What on earth could be next? After a failed attempt to pull open the envelope, my scissors did the job.

Now, we were getting somewhere! A white, unmarked, little box. I suspected jewelry.

LittleSquareBox

I was not wrong about that – inside was a little reddish velvet ring box.

VelvetRingBox

OMG!

When I peeked inside I saw my wedding ring set, shining like it was my wedding day. Hubby laughed when I asked him to put it on my finger, but I could tell he was proud of himself. The ring would still fit me perfectly, if I could just push it past my knuckle.

I always have had big knuckles on my small fingers and a bit of lotion or soap did the trick. Not today. Since the ring had broken, my arthritis had worsened. My knuckles were larger now. NO!

There was a way to get my ring on and I was going to find it. I iced my knuckle, hoping it would help, greased up my finger, and pushed with all my might. This effort was amusing hubby greatly. I told him I could not get it re-sized to fit my knuckle, the ring would be too loose and constantly spin.

Then I got an idea. You people who know me – stop laughing! It was a great idea, and it worked. What helps with getting something large through something small? OH!

Astro Glide. It still was tough on my knuckle, but I had my wedding ring back! It was 27-years after hubby first put it on my finger. My hands look a lot different now, as does the rest of me (and hubby). Our marriage is also different after 27-years. It is stronger and better, the older it gets. In another post, on another day, I will tell you my theory on why that happens.

TheRingHand

♥ TTFN ♥

All Grown Up (Sort of)

March 16, 2013 ~ 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 😉

Just Tell Me Where To Go

June 22, 2012 ~ JodiLea

A compass is as helpful to me as lipstick on a pig.

I need my buddy “Tim” to tell me where I need to go. Tim is the Englishman who lives inside my GPS unit and tells me what lane to be in and when to turn left. He calls the freeway a “motorway” in an English (UK) accent. ( I don’t know why, but I find that cool)

When I turn too early, or not at all, Tim never hollers at me. He quietly re-calculates the route and instructs me how to get there from wherever I happen to be. Thank goodness somebody knows where I am! So terrified of getting lost, I never drove anywhere outside of my town (on purpose), until Tim came along.

There are others* within my GPS that I can call on, who are entertaining, but tend to get on my nerves after 3 hours, so I usually return to reliable (and patient) Tim. Tim is not perfect. He often tries to get me to go strange and confusing routes. I guess these routes are shortcuts according to Tim, or he likes to mess with me. Either way, I ignore them when I happen to know where I am in relation to where I am going. This does not happen often, so when it does I feel pretty damn smart!

There are many voices I can buy from the website if I get bored with Tim.

* One is a Jamaican native who yells “turn the car around!” a lot. Then there’s Darth Vader – he tells me “your lack of faith is disturbing” when I don’t do exactly as he says. (I half expect to start choking) My granddaughter likes Billy Bob Thornton’s character from “Sling Blade” the best, who says, “Well, I guess you didn’t kill anybody” when you arrive at your destination.

Who tells you where to go?

photo credit: Su℮ ❥ via photopin cc