Looking Glass

   I am now on my seventh day of vacation. I am brown and freckly from the sun. I am relaxed more than I can remember. Guilt is almost a secondary feeling, as I am not accustomed to this way of relaxation nor have had many a time to be this exposed to the sun and laziness. I have had thoughts of , "What should I be doing?" "I haven't started one single project I brought with me to accomplish." But the guilt subsides quickly. I am on vacation. I am revitalizing myself to return to work. Typing of work, I have not received one email, text or phone call from my coworkers at the office. Good for them. Good for me. I am dispensable. They are worthy of tasks I have trained them to manage. The happenings in the office are not my concern. They are my Director's concern. I  have certainly deserved this space away from it all. Thank goodness my friends invited me to be their caretaker of the pets, home and plants.   Derek came a day early, per my invitation, on Tuesd...

  I am on my fourth day of no work. I am on my fourth day of  no concern to a clock or calendar.  I am on my fourth day of doing absolutely nothing. I am on my fourth day of little interruption. I am on my fourth day of being a pet care taker and house sitter. I am on my fourth day of reading a book I started four days ago. I am on my fourth day of having lots of thoughts filter through my brain. I am on my fourth day of nothingness. I am on my fourth day of vacation. I am, indeed, on my fourth day of serenity.   The original reason for this vacation, was to house sit and pet sit for my dear friends in that small ole' town from hence I moved. They are on an Alaskan Cruise, and due to the nice house, plants and pets needing care, they asked me to fulfill this dubious honor. My friends would not consider "just" anybody. Flattery will get you somewhere. (smile here.) So here I am.   My friend, KP, drove the hour and half yesterday from Olympia, to spend the day w...

  Again, time has slithered away and I have not been on my blogging site. I have thought of it often, have even missed it, but it seems the evenings after work leave me with depleted energy and the need to take naps, upon my arrival home. My emotional state has been quite good lately, other than a rare peak at a link of the ex when someone posts to Twitter. (Of course, his falseness jerks my chains every time. I can't help but peek, sometimes.) What is more shameful... sending him one liner emails contradicting his written statements and such. One sentence in the subject line like; "Disloyalty 101 should be a chapter in your next book."  "You couldn't even say hi to my mom when she came to visit your dieing dad."  "You will always have loose morals and be a bit dishonest". "Your article in the Sun Newspaper is so phony". One of his paragraphs written from the interviewer stated  him saying, he started his tour but ended up, unexpectedly f...

 After that last post, I have continued to keep busy and am surprised by the weeks that have slipped away without my reading my friends' posts, or writing on my own blog.  The night after my last post, I met with my daughter and her boyfriend who arrived from Houston for a short visit. We met with my son and his girlfriend in Seattle, and a lone friend of my son's at my son's pad. We went for a lovely dinner at a harbor side restaurant on the piers of Seattle. My daughter picked up the tab which I know was over $200. Really? Really? Bless her heart. We had a great time and I got to know her boyfriend a bit better. Their next chapter in life is moving into together when they return to Houston. During a quiet conversation she and I had, she reminded me, this is the first time she lived with a guy, she's always had female housemates...true...so, I only felt it fair to ask him at one point, as an upcoming medical student with future student loan debts and many years of fin...

...And time passes. Things change. I have had some interesting items of happenstance, occur, as of late. Nothing groundbreaking, earth shattering, or major, just interesting...(at least to me...smile here). Two weekends ago, my Toastmaster friend asked if I would babysit her house and dog for a weekend, while she was away. It did not take hesitation to accept. She has a warm, wonderful residence, and has welcomed me there on numerous occasions. I was fortunate enough to have the sun glowing in our region, at that time. I skittled right from work to her home, without prior packing. I lounged on the deck admiring the evening view. The Evening View.  It was quite relaxing and I simply cared for the dog, and used my mobile phone for checking emails, checking my ISN sites and chatting via the technology. I was also on call for the agency, and did have to respond to some pages. I went to bed rather early. On Saturday morning, after relaxing on the deck with fresh coffee, I took the d...

   Tuesday morning, when I unplugged my cell phone from it's night of charging, my dear, guy friend had sent me a text the night before. It said, "Finally read the entire blog. Turn it into a book. Your writing style is amazing." I held my heart then texted him back, "Ha. Amazing may be an exaggerated term. But thanks. I can't believe you read the whole thing. Aw."    As part of my morning routine, I sit at my computer with a fresh cup of coffee and check my favorite on line sites and emails. He had emailed me a letter, too. Anxious to see what it was, I opened the attachment and saw a Word Document spring open before my eyes. It was titled, "Letter to Claire", (though he used my real name.)     He thoughtfully complimented my blog after reading the WHOLE thing. He said he was convinced that someday I will do an author signing. He appreciated, "thought provoking statements has allowed me to look deeper into your soul", even though we ha...

When I think of glass, many objects cross my mind in visualization of this product. Windows, (of course), which allow us to see the world from an inside view. I picture skyscrapers across America with  glass walls, allowing reflections to bounce from them, or to protect the mannequins from strangers' hands. Glass jars, trillions of shapes, sizes and colors, that can hold anything from flowers to noodles, or life... like an embryo to a firefly. I think of the windshield of my car, with two cracks running down the passenger side. A mar left from passing trucks, flinging rocks at my Honda. I think of rocket ships and the glass windshields on them. What strength these objects have to withstand so much pressure, pings, weather and the like. Amazing, isn't it? Yet, when packing to move, or rearranging something with glass, we are so protective and careful to wrap it for transport, or lift it with gentle hands. We know of it's fragility. I think the human character is, as glass. ...