Travel the world, my dear

I have just spent two days with several folks from my company whom I have never met before. Things have been great. I have been learning about openings, probing, confirmation and indifference. My performance upon my return from training should be outstanding. Well, that is if I can manage to retain it all.

There are three people I have been spending the most time with. One girl works for the same region I work for and we have found over the last couple of days that we have even more in common than we thought. The other two folks work in the Boston and New York regions of our company. I have been very happy with the time we have spent together. We have told stories about our family, I have had a chance to repeat some of my favorite stories about my hubby and I have heard about places that I thought before I would like to visit, but know for sure that I want to now. One thing the four of us all have in the common is love for travel and the good fortune that we have all had a chance to travel to some interesting and beautiful places around the world. I know a woman who was born and raised in Brazil. From hearing her talk about what a beautiful place it is, I have put that on my last of places to go. One of my co-workers has been there and loves it. He spent a semester there when he was in school and he said it was a time in his life that he will never forget. So, ten years from now I would love to say that I have been to Brazil. Caroline, the girl I work in the Southeastern region with, spent her honeymoon in Spain. She told some wonderful stories about things that she and her husband did. She highly recommended it. Five years from now, I would love to say that I have been to Spain. Now, I could handle switching those two around, but I know they are on my list.

Tomorrow, I spend my last day in DC. I have not done the site seeing that I thought I would do. I am not as close to the sites as I thought I was. I guess I will to make another trip back sometime.

I head back to Atlanta tomorrow on a red eye and I am excited about waking up in my own bed. Besides, I leave for Charlotte on Saturday and I will not be home again until Monday evening.

From DC, with love.

For The Sheer Love of DC

Sometimes I am a lucky lady. I will truly determine that at the end of this week when I fly back to Atlanta at midnight so I can rise again early on Friday for an important meeting in Augusta that just had to be rescheduled because of The Masters.

I am in DC this week for training. Somehow I became one of the six lucky folks across this great nation to be involved in a pilot training program for my company. I ran around a lot this morning going to the store, finishing laundry and making sure I had all of my ducks in a row before I left. Once I arrived at the airport I found it to be a lot like a holiday weekend. I thought everyone went home yesterday. Apparently not because it took half a lifetime to get through just to get my E ticket. Then, it did take a life time to get through security. I had a my laptop because I do not dare check that. I was wearing my glasses which I am not wearing in my driver's license and for some reason most people seem to be wondering why I am traveling alone. Thankfully I did not wear anything that set the detectors off, that would have only taken me longer. The good news was that my flight was delayed. I was not really happy about that, however it did give me a chance to make some much needed calls.

The flight was the usual good people watching and listening. I sat next to a sweet young lady who is in the eighth grade at a boarding school in New York. I also got to see two bad examples of parenting and one good example. For some reason, I guess it is because small children are not use to planes and the environment within them, and I think parents find themselves in the same place and do not really know what to do with them. There were two small children near me who honestly screamed their heads off the entire flight. Thankfully it was only and hour and twenty minute flight. One child did the screaming out of sheer spit of his mom and the other was just truly scared and unhappy. The small child in front of me was wonderful. I am sure it had something to do with her parents' soothing voice and the fact that they sat there and talked to her about the clouds that passed by and what they were doing next. I made a mental note on how they were handling their young daughter, who was on her first flight. She was very good and a complete doll. She was wearing a red cotton shirt under overalls and her chestnut hair was in pig tails. Just before we took off, she poked her head over the seat and said hi to me. I could not help but say hi back to her.

So, now I sit in my room, which is more like a studio apartment and very nice. I got here safe and sound and I am pretty impressed that I did not have to get lost first to find out where I was going. I have only been to DC once and it was a long time ago so the area is really pretty new to me.

Now, I just have to have all of my stuff together for this week, which I do. I read through the course material, I made the appropriate notes and I am ready for some training.... Reading, movies, role play. Should be a good time. I think.

Love And Dodge Ball

The Culpepper 1st Anniversary was very good. We are currently taking a Newlywed Seminar at church which started off our day, we ate leftovers for lunch, Greg and Mary's husband, Andrew watched Tech lose to Duke, which is exactly what happened on our wedding day (we even have pictures to prove it), then we watched Dodge Ball. We ended the night with a half romantic dinner and a couple of Jim Carey movies. All and all it was very good. My anniversary gift is a trip to Charleston this coming weekend and Greg got a nice watch.... Somehow that does not sound even, but the trip is for both of us. The watch is just a thank you for planning it.

It is hard to believe that just one short year ago we were on our way to St. Lucia. Now, I look outside my office window and I do not see the blue sky and hear the waves. I see a gray sky and I hear Dave Matthews playing on the radio. Next best thing, I guess.

Oh! I have spring fever up in here

Blah! I am working today... It is a must. I have too much to do and I have not reached the high status in my company yet to require an assistant for myself. I do not know how long that is going to take, but it better get here in a hurry.

On my way to the office I stopped at Swoozie's to look for some invitations for a couple of showers I have coming up this spring. Greg is going to be very proud of me because I walked out purchasing two items for less than $10.00, and I did not decide on invitations, so I will have to go back. But, I walked into a shop like Swoozie's which I love and I spent less than $10.00. I have to get credit for that.

As I walked around the store I saw great spring tots and I just could not wait for spring to get here. I can not wait to break out my sun dresses, spring tots and hats that you wear just for accessories and not even to keep your ears warm. These feelings were further influenced by the fact that the sun is out (finally!), and there is not a cloud in the sky. Man, I wish I was doing yard work right now. This is the perfect day to do it.

So, the first day of spring is less than 10 days away.... Maybe I could start pulling out my spring gear...

On a very romantic note, Greg and I will celebrate our first wedding anniversary tomorrow. Hard to believe. I have been a MRS. for one year.... Wow, I feel like I need to high five my husband and say "We made it!" But, instead I think I will just tell him, thank you, I love him and I can not wait to say I have been married for 10, 20, 30, 40 years.....

28

Yesterday I celebrated my twenty-eighth birthday. I did not do anything like take the day off and go to the spa like I did last year, but I had a great day. I had calls from some of the people who are dearest to my heart, singing birthday wishes and making me feel so special. When I got home I had a mailbox full of cards and packages. I felt loved.

One thing that has become a birthday tradition for me is dinner at my mom's. I know why I think birthdays are so special now. My mom has always made my birthday as well as my brother and sister's birthday a special day for us and this year was no different. Mom cooked some of my favorite things, we had chocolate cake and a candle that played music. Just as every year my mom let me know that she was happy to have me and that my birthday was special for her too. I had a great birthday. Greg gave me a very sweet card and this year it was to his wife, not his girlfriend, not his fiance... His wife, along with a gift card to Borders.... He loves his bookworm of a wife.

As I thought back on it when I got into bed last night, I realized the best part of my birthday was that I received my first kiss from my nephew, Luke. He has become just the absolute apple of every eye in my family and I am a sucker for him. So when he leaned over at nine months of age and kissed my check, my whole heart just melted. I could not have received a better or sweeter gift.

I had a happy birthday and I look forward to many more....

Me and Alyssa Milano

I have a really fun calendar on my desk. It is the "Wild Words from Wild Women" Although I am not sure that every woman listed in the calendar is really wild. I am not even sure I realize Alyssa Milano was wild. Apparently she is wild enough to make it to the calendar.Today Alyssa says,

"I use to sleep nude- until the earthquake."

I can see how that would be uncomfortable. I might feel the same way.

Cheers to every wild woman out there!

Lining Up My Lessons

So this past week was not my best, not by far. I started the week off completely normal. I was still on a high from spending the weekend with two of my best friends, Greg and I were just getting back from a great workout at the gym, it was six A.M. and I was getting a phone call that I just did not want. A year and two weeks after losing my grandad, I was just hearing that I was losing my Nanna too. And with her she took some of my love and little of my regret. My Nanna battled alzheimer's for about 8 years. Watching her change during those years was so hard. But what was harder for me was watching my grandad try to take care of her and watch my mom and my aunts get to know a different mom from the one that had raised them. After 63 years of marriage my grandparents could barely be separated my death and my grandad came to bring her home.

So this week I have not been myself. When I presented a reading at my grandad's funeral last year, I nearly fell apart as I read. I swore at my Nanna's funeral I was not going to do that. I almost didn't make it. But I took a deep breath and I got through it. At the end I looked up and I saw my mom and my heart was broken at that point. It was way past time for my Nanna to leave us because suffering had become her middle name. But I compare my mom's loss of her mom, to my loss right now. My mom is so close to me. I need her, I love her and I call on her so often. To lose that right now would be more than I can bare.

My Nanna was my last living grandparent. My dad's parents passed away when I was very young, although I do remember them. But my mom's parents were part of my life for almost 28 years. We spent holidays together, they knew what I was doing in school and they told me stories. I was blessed to have them as long as I did. But losing them I am not so sure I have handled well. Over the this week I have started to learn a few things about myself that I did not realize before. I tend to cope with things and not feel them and let them heal. I like that I feel happy most of the time, but I do not like that I hold on to things and they tend to come out at the worst time and all together wrong. I am learning that I have to let some things go and to handle my feelings in better ways. Over compensation is not the key.

I am also learning that I have entered a new phase of my life. I am a wife now, not a girlfriend. My girlfriends and I are changing and we are finding ourselves supporting each other through new situations as we learn to get through them together. And I have learned that I can not do everything on my own. My husband is my partner, my friends love me and support me. I will always remember my grandparents, and I will feel better in time. And this time I am going to be sad, I am going recognize that my wonderful life is going through changes and that beside me is a wonderful man, life long friends and a family that I love with all of my heart.