Today I was at my place of employment...doing my thing, working through the day's normal bullshit and enjoying my silly assed cats. I spent some time carefully salvaging a plant that I had on my desk that they regularly thrash.
I went out back to prepare to to go out in the field when I discovered I had forgotten Andy Gibb, who was to be my ride-along partner for the day. :)
So I headed back up to the office for my iPod and Monika (my boss lady) stops me and says, "Don't go over to your desk. There was a huge crash over there and it's not pretty."
My brain goes, "awww helll naw" and I knew it was those silly assed cats messing in my sacred little area of the shelter, my workstation!
They knocked over the plant that I had above my desk and managed to knock it to the floor and break the pretty pot it was in...pinche gatos! I couldn't believe my ojos! Now I had choices here: Beat the cats or save the plant...and then beat cats later.
Actually, it made me laugh. What else could I do really? I sat down in the midst of the poor plant, broken pot pieces and dirt. My eyes settled on today's date in my datebook: October 7th!
October 7th is the birthday of a dear friend who suddenly passed away in one of the worst years of my life. My Mother and Father died within a six month period...and between their deaths, my friend and co-worker, Jerry Provine died as well, at 59.
I wish I could say that me and Jerry hit it right off the first day we met. But in reality, when I started working with her I was in a period of my life where I hated every white face I saw. As well, Jerry was sure I was gonna rob the place and steal all her pens, pencils, erasers, staplers, paper clips, thumb tacks, and anything else that wasn't nailed down.
Eventually, I was promoted and had to actually endure entire days of being with Jerry in the front office. She tried to bully me, intimidate me, boss me...and I straight thought she was the white devil personified in a 4 foot, 9 inch woman. I rebuked her daily...and loudly!
Little did I know that I would one day be doing bible studies with her. Little did she know that one day she would be inviting me to eat at her table on Easter Sunday...the first Easter after my Mom died...but also, the last Easter before she herself was to die.
We fought and loved, battled, and sporadically silent treatmented each other for a year or so until I was promoted to an Animal Control Officer. I then left the office setting and started working regularly in the field (which Jerry said is exactly where I belonged, but she said I should be out there picking grapes).
I think we packed a lifetime into the few years we worked so closely together. We had a million inside jokes and although we were cruel in our one liners to each other, it was nothing to compared with the way we made fun of everyone else when we sat together in meetings, parties...or dare I say, church, lol.
Then one day, after my Mom died, but right before my Dad died...on a Sunday (I was on-call, of course) Jerry up and died on me. I felt like Goddess had played a cruel, cruel trick on me. And if I dwell on it long enough, I still get all sorts of pissed off about it to this day.
But as Laura says, Timer is a jigsaw. I started praying and praising in earnest...even when I wasn't feeling it. It was time of great transition for me. Sink or swim, really...but mainly I just struggled to tread and keep my head above water, breathing in and out.
Eventually, the jigsaw took shape...they filled Jerry's position at work with someone new...and that woman, Christina, has become one of my very best homegirls! Jerry would be pissed to know she was replaced by a Mexican. *snicker*snicker* :)
So I found myself today sitting at my desk, amongst the thrashed plant that Jerry had bought me years before, when my Mother died...a few months before she herself would die. I sat there laughing and sorta crying...thinking to myself..."Dayum! You didn't have to throw around my pinche plant just to get me to remember your birthday, Jerry." But that's the way Jerry Provine was...a Drama Queen...in this life...and apparently in the next!
God, I miss her!
Currently
listening
:
Sapphire
By
Teena Marie
Release date: 2006-05-09
"In early 2007, Palin's administration approved an initiative to pay a $150 bounty to hunters who killed a wolf from an airplane in certain areas, hacked off the left foreleg, and brought in the appendage. Ruling that the Palin administration didn't have the authority to offer payments, a state judge quickly put a halt to them but not to the shooting of wolves from aircraft."
"Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image. The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The 'barracuda' represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there." -Ann & Nancy Wilson
..
Everything else aside, wasn't this an amazing fucking song!?!?
Thanks to WildFlower Fever over at the JIMB for hipping us to this clip of Rage Against the Machine at the city sanctioned protest festivities in Minneapolis! The electrical power was cut, but the band played on!
I thought they broke up! So glad to see them back where they belong!
I was rollin’ around, in my mind it occurred What if God was a her? Would I treat her the same? Would I still be runnin’ game on her? In what type of ways would I want her? Would I want her for her mind or her heavenly body? Couldn’t be out gettin’ bogus with someone so godly If I was wit’ her would I still be wantin’ my ex? The lies, the greed, the weed, the sex Wouldn’t be ashamed to give her part of my check Wearin’ her cross, I mean the heart on my neck Her I would reflect on the streets of the Chi’ Ride wit’ her, ’cause I know for me she’d die Through good and bad call on her like I’m chirpin’ her Couldn’t be jealous ’cause other brothers worship her Walk this earth for her, glory, I’m grateful To be in her presence I try to stay faithful
Currently
listening
:
Be
By
Common
Release date: 24 May, 2005
