Earthquake Awareness

The new furnace was installed yesterday. In as much as I hated paying for it because my money tree is stripped bare, it was wonderful to feel heat in my house again.

I promptly called Hot Toddy at work and left a message...

"Go 'head, ask me. Ask me. Ask me how it feels to be warm again. It's so nice to have heat in the house and be warm again. I'm not cold. No sir-ry. Not cold at all. Not me. Okay, that's all I have to say." [click]

Once the furnace guys were out of the house, I was able to get my day back on track which required one more call to The Toaster Oven.

HT: HELLO....

AP: [laughing] Hello? Since when do you answer the phone at work like that?!

HT: Since I'm under my desk. We're having a mock earthquake drill and Juju and I both dropped underneath our desks like we were supposed to. My phone rang so I answered it. You just happened to catch me in the middle of an earthquake, that's all.

AP: What good employees you two are.

HT: I know. When they walked through our area and said "earthquake drill" everybody else just stood around talking about it but Juju and I knew what to do. Although...just in case I got bored under here, I did grab my World of Warcraft book to read while I'm under my desk.

AP: [laughing]

HT: Hey, Juju.

Juju: Yeah?

HT: Are you still under your desk.

Juju: No. [she said something else I couldn't make out].

HT: No, I think I'll just stay down here. There might be aftershocks!

The childlike innocence, excitement and silliness in his voice were priceless. He sees humor in situations and capitalizes on it so quickly that I often wonder where the ideas come from. It's comedic genius. I could totally see him writing another play about office life and writing that into the script.

I was just calling to let him know I was behind on getting the laundry done and was going to be needing the washer and dryer after he got home. I usually try not to invade his personal space with such chores when he's home since it requires I be downstairs.

What I got was an exchange that totally made me laugh which is something I've not had enough of lately.

I posted my resume into The Abyss on the Internet and within just a few hours I was receiving calls like crazy. A company in Boise called looking for an AIX Engineer and was willing to line up strippers for private dances just to get me to relocate.

Another firm was willing to give me time to blow the dust off my Unix skills, train me on their product and pay me $100k... to travel the country to different offices 85% of the time. "But we'll make sure you're home 'most' weekends." I'm sorry, bite my what?

There have been some really great opportunities that are very real that I am scheduling interviews for. I want so badly for something to cross my path that really gets me charged up. Goddess, how I miss the old me.

I realized today that whereas yesterday I felt depleted and out of options, I realized today that patience is the ultimate option. It's similar to the saying that change is the only constant. For me, if I can incorporate into my thought process that patience is the ultimate option, I think I'll be a lot better off.

I know not every situation is going to be conducive to taking the patient approach. Some situations require an immediate response. But for me, if I can build in a pause and realize that not everything needs an answer right now I will find some of the faith it feels like I've lost.

Sometimes I forget that things happen for a reason. I've had a tough time of it lately and though I don't currently know why these things are going on in my life, I'll find some patience and know that one day it will become clear why I had to endure so many bumps along the way.

If there's one thing I do know, it's that I'm a strong woman and I will be standing tall on the other side of this.