I'm face to face with the enemy

and it's me looking back in the mirror.

Whew, what a relief to say that out-loud. The truest part of that statement, well, it's the relief that I feel saying it out loud.

The only enemies we have in life, truly, are the one's we create.  I hate to break it to you.  But, only your mother cares that much about you.  Get over the rest.

There is a man in town whom I've been having lunch with.  I'm not sure how else to describe our friendship.  We have lunch once a week.  My goodness, is he a nice looking, nice dressed man.  He's 37.  And although, I can't tell you Canani from Murani - I know he's not shopping at Target...... (He would be SO offended if I told you that)   So, in other words:  He's a very well dressed man whom takes me to lunch.

That's it.

Oh, my is he handsome.  And wealthy.  AND........ a million other words we would like in our lives.  ONLY:  IT"S NOT THERE.

Sorry

Truly.

Then, even better, you remember a moment - at least 5 years ago when he was out with a woman, and you met him.  He's not going to remember you.  You met him in a "moment" at least 5 years ago.

There are several moments, I hope no one remembers me from.  The moment, I knew he knew this woman. Well, I hate to say this, but I had NO interest in ever seeing him again.  It's funny.  She's smart.  She's successful. There are lots of positives about her.  About him.

I've been recruiting now for 19 years and I know people.  People lie.  People tell the truth.  I'm almost 99% sure I can tell the difference.

AND I know real from not real. And if you are out with someone whom you shouldn't be and now "we're friends", well.....   

ONLY once have I been burned.  I thought my friend was a real friend, but he wasn't.  I just took it that GOD wanted me to meet the people in his life (they are still my friends).  This time.  Remember, I learned the lesson before.

Really, the funny thing is:  I'm a lot like this girl. Or am I?  At least I think I am.  I think I'm judging myself.  I'm looking at this woman like the rest of the world looks at me....

Only,

I'm prettier
smarter
more fun
real
and, well,



you get the idea.....


Maybe, I'm just Cinderella looking through the glass......

The worst thing:  I wrote this GREAT incredible story.  AND well all knew there was something missing.  The moment.  Quit tying to want more.  Just enjoy it.

The enemy,  she's going be on your side.  You know that.  Just breathe.

And I promise this is maturity.  It's only maturity because I can say this.  For the first time I believe it:

"I would rather you love  - even if that love doesn't include me"

She's looking back at me....

What is a Penny for?

• Fountain wishes - what else would I throw in a fountain?
• Horsey rides at the grocery store - yes, they are still just $.01
• When something is $1.99 - what would the store clerk give you for change?
• What if you wanted to pay the exact amount in cash and your total is $1.01?
• Something to put on the train track (or in the machine at the amusement park)
• Your thoughts
• A note from heaven.  (Google Penny's from Heaven)
• To make some one's day.  Have you EVER seen a penny on the ground and not smiled?  ;-) 

The next time to have a penny in your hand, don't get upset or annoyed.  Just smile.  Someone is smiling with you.

Dear Leasa,

You are 42 years old.  You live in Denver, Colorado and have two sons whom are in middle school - they play ice hockey.  One is defense, one is a goalie. (I realize you don't even know the positions = you will). One is finishing 8th grade, the other 7th. (You are also divorced, contrary to upbringing - it's not the end of the world.  You married a really good guy.  He's a GREAT dad. You couldn't have picked a better dad for your children).

And here is what I have to tell you.

Your Granny & Papo are still alive.  They will be married 65 years on May 1st.  Papo is not doing well, but everyone has been worried about him for years.  It's Granny that you need to watch.  She says she okay.  And she will still make you look like you are standing still.  She has a million activities - she loves everything about your life.

But it took you until 42 to learn a few things.  And it's not just Granny, it's women from the South and life.  I hope you read this when you are young enough to change, yet old enough to know you need to carry some of it forward.  This is what you need to learn:

• When someone says  "Bless your heart"  - they really do feel empathy.  They also want you to get over yourself.  It's not that bad.
• When a lady tells you "That's nice" - she is bored - she's just being polite  (and you will have a GREAT JOKE that everyone in VAIL loves about this comment - you learned this one early)
• FIXIN - has NOTHING to do with the car.  It can be dinner, it can be your face and it can mean ABOUT TOO.  After all, you are from Texas.
• STILL - don't EVER tell someone "they look pretty - STILL"  or  "For their age".  Just stop at "you look pretty" OR 'You have nice skin'.
• PLEASE, don't ever say "are you wearing that?"  THAT'S just rude.  Obviously, whomever you are about to say that too is wearing it or you wouldn't have to think "are you wearing that?"  You can still THINK that.  Please just do not say it out loud.  It's embarrassing, for everyone.
• The thing that will really "drive you crazy" is the following phrase:  "don't tell anyone".  Here is your thought  "PLEASE DON'T BURDEN ME WITH your secret".  Some how, if you tell someone else, and tell them not to tell, it lets you off the hook.  When someone tells you this, please tell them something that you KNOW they will not keep a secret. Then say the same thing.  OR say, NO, please don't tell me.  I KNOW you are dying to know what they will say, but have some respect.  For yourself.
• The college kid on the plane next to you, buy him a drink - it turns out to be his birthday.  Sometimes, you can just be, being nice.
• The scariest words you will ever hear are in written form.  They come in an e-mail with a picture and it says "is this you?" or "do you know these girls".  Yes, STILL.  You've still got it.
• You will LOVE movies you never thought you'd like.  For reasons you won't even begin to understand.   
• You cry at Soul Surfer and the Blind Side not because you wish you were the main character, because you are jealous that they are the Mom you were supposed to be.  Only you didn't know you had it in you. You are just jealous.  That's Hollywood. 
•  That skinny teenager with glasses, and NO self-esteem.  She does okay.
• Your parents love you.  So does your Aunt.  You also love your sister. She loves you too.  And well, you all always knew your grand-parents would do anything in the world for you. 
• You have INCREDIBLE friends.  
• You are in for a bumpy ride, but hang on, it's all worth it.

I can't even prepare you for being 42.  After all, that skinny, curly haired girl is still in there.  She just has a few pounds on her (Believe it or not) .  And even better hair product. (You will have GREAT hair). 

Just remember - hang on.  You got out.  Don't ever forget what made you you.

You couldn't even have dreamed it this well.


Aloha

Plagiarism

What is plagiarism?  Whom has the first claim to a written thought?  Is anything ever new?

What if I had a thought - then wrote it down.  While you might have had the same thought and didn't write it down.  OR you had a thought - then months/years later you read the same type of thought. 

These are confusing times......

I wrote a post while in Hawaii this spring  AND granted, I QUOTED it from an article 

" a person can only take so much beauty and inspiration before they have to get back to the grocery list".  We take for granted what we see on the way to the store.

Today, I'm reading a book - "The Rum Diaries" - and NO, I'm not reading it because Johnny Deep is in the movie.  Once again, it's me and a "classic" I need to read.  Hunter S. Thompson  I'm on Chapter 17, page 169 and I read this:  "The delicate illusions that get us through life can only stand so much strain-"......

Those two quotes SOUND very similar.  I didn't plagiarize - I quoted what I had read.  BUT WHAT IF, that person took their writing style from Hunter S Thompson?

Where do we define the line?

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to "plagiarize" means

• to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
• to use (another's production) without crediting the source
• to commit literary theft
• to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone's work and lying about it afterward.

I understand photographs.  If I take a picture and you use the picture I took for your brochure, website, etc without my permission that is plagiarism.  It's very simple.

What if some us actually think the same?  Not only think the same, but are able to express our thoughts the same?

I'm not talking college essays' here - I'm talking about my rambling thoughts used in your article.  Your quote used in my "wall post" on Facebook.

Where do we draw the line?   This line might make a circle......

 

 

More gas, More beer,

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

Without breaking it up "More Gas, More Beer, Wishing you a Happy New Year."  This was supposed to be the saying on the Christmas Card two years ago - Christmas 2010.

Christmas Cards are MY thing.  I'm all about the Christmas card.  Yes, now there are electronic cards.  And we really don't get as much mail as we used too.  BUT, December - it's my month.  AND I HATE DECEMBER.  (but December has NOTHING on FEBRUARY),

Martha Stewart comes SCREAMING out of me - sometimes.  BUT Christmas cards - I'm ALWAYS Martha.

2010 was a big year.  I took my sons to Moab, UT for the first time.  To the "Russo Puppy Party".  Easter Weekend.  This year, was our third year. 

Duncan was 12.  My friend Ed, whom I've know since I was 19 - decided 12 was the age you learn how to drive.  Seriously.  I come back from a motorcycle ride and Duncan has driven a Land Rover.  (Wait, I had the boys, you had the girl, and you still get all the fun!!!).

They learned to drive, they learned how to drive motorcycle's and they got to shoot the adult men in the buttocks with a BB gun. My sons will never be the same - it changed their lives forever. (Duncan learned to drive the Land Rover.  THEY both learned everything else.  THEY will never be the same)

Then there is a place called "Potato Salad".

Side note:  I like nice things.  I like my nails done.  I like my hair done.  And I can also camp for 4 days without a shower - NOT a nice thing, but I can play with the boys)

Then there is a place called "Potato Salad"  - yes, I know, I repeated that.  You Tube It.  It doesn't get much more white trash than this.  

Basically, you watch trucks try to climb this hill (we've never seen one flip - one can only hope!).  People cheer.  It's hysterical.  There is a girl driving and the crowd yells "More GAS" - she yells back "I need more beer".  The story was born....

2010 - I ran my first marathon.

HOW THE HECK DO I COME UP WITH A CHRISTMAS CARD FOR THIS YEAR?

Boys suggestion:  "More Gas, More Beer, We are wishing you a Happy New Year".

I JUST couldn't do it.  I would have to do two Christmas cards - one for the group that would understand, another for everyone else.  For the first time in probably 20 years - I didn't send one.

Although, I probably should have.  It will always be the year I didn't send a card, but we all know what it said.

PS - It's only April, and well this year, it should be good......

He still thinks he has "game"

His name was Tom.  I don't know his last name.

He was 88.  He was from Chicago.  His wife passed away 20 years ago.  He had a lady friend.  She didn't like to go out.  Wait, yes she did, just not past 8.  She golfed with him.  Had dinner with him.  Then Tom would take her home and go out in Cherry Creek.

His eyes were very blue and could see through to your soul.  And at 88 years old was still very charming.  Sharp as a tack.  Could talk about anything and everything.  During his career, he was the #1 sales guy at his company and still wore a sales ring.  The ring was an award for his career.  I THINK he was in car sales, but I could be wrong.  He also lost a daughter, after his wife.

I have never understood the Anna Nicole Smith story.  He was WAY old.  She was VERY young.  And yes, I too, thought she was a gold digger.  My first instinct was to say "Yes, she's after his money".

Then I met Tom.  Truth be told, I don't even know the name of Anna Nicole Smith's old rich husband.  I was just fascinated with the story.

But when I met Tom, I thought for the first time, we could all be wrong.

Could I have married this guy?  No.  No doubt about it.

For a moment though, I HOPE he (Anna Nicole Smith's first husband) was a guy like Tom.

I hadn't seen Tom since October.  I was sorta in hibernation for the winter and didn't go out much.  Although, I've been out and about the last few weeks and hadn't seen him.  I knew I needed to ask.

The last time I saw Tom, it was a Wednesday night in October.  I was out with a "male friend" for dinner.  He passed away the following Tuesday.  Same Tom - to his defense, he wasn't the guy whom would sit at the bar and tell you his stories.  He smiled.  He laughed.  He asked questions.  And he flirted with you. He didn't care if you were sitting with someone else.  You didn't really care either, you wanted to talk to Tom.  He was very handsome - still.  Or maybe his character carried him through.

His lady friend had called the restaurant and let them know.  They lit a candle for him.

He still thought he had game.  He told me once  "If I wasn't so old I would kiss you.".  I smiled.  Of course you would.  I'm sorry - you are older than my grandfather.  That's not what I said.  I just smiled.

Truth be told - if he could still make someone smile at 88 years old - he still had game.....

Please, make a memorial for me somewhere one day - don't say though "she thought she still had game".  Please write "She still had game".  I can only hope.

Beer Goggles

Or really, wine goggles.  Maybe martini goggles????  :-)

A friend was in town for business and decided to stay for one more night so we could see each other.  We went to Happy Hour downtown by the hotel she had been staying in.

Then we went to Cherry Creek.  My "hood".  My "stomping ground".  She is married.  Has kids.  Has a great career.  She got to see the "single life".  Or rather the "we are old now and this is where we go places in town".  :-)

It's a beautiful night and we are at my favorite restaurant.  There is something to be said for going to the same places.  The staff knows how to treat you.  They know you'll be back.  You also know how to treat them, because, well, you will be back and want to be treated well.

The manager stops by our table - and sits down.  He thanks me for sharing a cab home with someone whom shouldn't have been driving to avoid an argument.  (It's easy to convince someone they shouldn't drive, if someone else will go with them!)  My house was on the way home, I had the managers phone number, and it was easy.  Plus, I had cocktails anyway.  We shouldn't drive, even if we think we are okay.

Side note there.

After Mark (the manager) leaves, she says  "Is he gay?".  I say "No."  Are you sure?  Well, no, but he was married, he does have two sons, but I know that doesn't mean anything.  She says, "I think he's gay".

A cocktail later - and during dinner.  "You know, Mark is kinda cute".  She says.  I smile.  He is cute.  He dresses well and he's very fun. 

The next cocktail later.  "Where's Mark?  He hasn't stopped by our table in a while.  You know, I don't think he's gay".  Ok.  Sure thing.  I don't think he's gay either.  He's flirty, he's charming - but that's his job.  ;-)

He bought us a drink.  More friends stopped by.  We had a wonderful evening.  And Mark, was fun, and charming and doing his job.  I've known the man for years. He was off work and left.
 
We took a cab home.  We were probably okay to drive, but why take the chance?  We could hurt someone. 

AND THE FIRST THING I HEAR FROM THE GUEST ROOM THE NEXT MORNING:

"I think he's gay"......... ;-) 

We all know alcohol can lead to bad decisions.  It can also lead to very fun stories.......