I got an email from my best high school friend today saying she probably couldn't make it for our reunion. Her Dad has inoperable cancer and is receiving supportive care from a home health agency and her Mom. She lives on the West Coast so the trips she has made home to check on them have been, though not in the budget, necessary. We have gathered around the kitchen table where we sat as teenagers and caught up on things during the past year or so. She mentioned in her email that she felt like her life was "on hold" waiting for a call to come home. Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I've gotta say I know that feeling and it makes me weary to the bone. The way I figure it, Big Ernie gives you lovely carefree days like I had yesterday to prepare you for what's ahead. Last night BG and her gals went out to celebrate her birthday and she got surprised with a party. I woke up in the middle of the night to her sobs that came from a combination of fatigue and stress and plain old meanness. I'm so grateful to be there to hold her and I thought about how painful it is to get to the point where you accept tragedy as a part of life and keep going. At her age, I was the same way only I cried a lot easier. She's pretty tough, and as she said.....it was probably time for a breakdown.

She called me at work today to say that one of the kittens was dead in the driveway and one other was missing. I found the remains of the missing a mile away on the road so my theory is they crawled up into the motor of her friend's truck before he left. Burying kittens is not on my short list of fun things to do after a day at the sawmill. Stewie was one of them..the other she had named Schnebley. Don't ask, cuz I don't have a clue about where that name came from.

Earlier this week a co-worker who is prone to whine and pitch fits had one right after I walked in the door and stepped stomped on my last nerve. This woman is comfortable financially, has a good life with lots of friends and her husband was cured of cancer years ago. Yet she persists on huffing and puffing her way through the day as though she were the only one lifting a finger. That day I called her on it and "assertively" yet calmly told her that there was no reason for her to act that way because we are a TEAM and she doesn't do any more than some others to row the boat. When she started in on the "some people" routine, I suggested that if she had a problem with "some people" she should address them in person rather than stomping around like a mad woman muttering to herself loud enough that everyone can hear. I think she got my point. Definitely a half full glass kind of person, if you know what I mean. Life is too short, ya'll.

Peace out. And keep the faith ^j^