Familiar (11/365)

You take a vacation to a place like Thailand and you're ready for the excitement of something new and foreign. But when you're working 14-hour days, all you want is something familiar to ground you. And there's just nothing there. 

~Ed Helms

Tonight, Mike and I did something we haven't done since leaving Illinois ... we went to a local high school basketball game. Mike follows high school player rankings and college recruiting as a hobby of sorts, and there are quite a few outstanding high school basketball players in this area.

What kind of slapped me up along side the head as we were sitting in the bleachers was that doing this - attending a high school basketball game - felt really good - familiar if you will. And throughout this move I've really missed familiar, because nothing here has been familiar ... until tonight!

January (10/365)

Feeling a little blue in January is normal. 

~Marilu Henner

I don't know that I'll ever get used to seeing flowers in January, but I do know that I'll never take seeing flowers in January for granted! 

Sick (9/365)

I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick. 

~Muhammad Ali

I had a sudden onset of chest congestion last night. When I woke up this morning there was an elephant sitting on my chest. Fortunately I have a cabinet filled with ingredients to make me feel better!

Leftovers (8/365)

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for 

thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. 

The original meal has never been found.

~Calvin Trillin

We went to dinner at the Chicago Brewing Company tonight. I should know by now that just because a restaurant has a familiar city name doesn't mean it has any relationship to that city. Although the food was good, the House Draft menu was small (I ended up drinking coffee), but the leftovers were wonderful!

Laundry (7/365)

We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy,

even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry. 

~E. B. White

When we moved to Las Vegas, one of my non-negotiables during our house-hunting trip was to have a washer and dryer in our home. Not a laundry day goes by that I am not a wee bit grateful for that non-negotiable.

Phone (6/365)

My cell phone is my best friend. It's my lifeline to the outside world.

~Carrie Underwood

I'd like to think that I am not dependant on my phone - that if I left it at home, it wouldn't be a big deal. But the truth is? My phone really has become my lifeline, and when I leave it at home (like today)? I feel like I am completely cut off from the world.

UPS (5/365)

I worked on the United Parcel Service truck, I sold home delivery of milk.

But always, in the back of my mind. I wanted to get into radio.

~Larry King

More tales from the remote worker diaries. Every other week, I print checks and overnight them to my boss for his signature and mailing. What's scarey? The employees at the UPS Store know me ...