Regular Irregularity

I’ve had more than one person give me a little flack about not blogging regularly. I know that the best way to create an interactive blog is to make sure that you post something every day. The truth about the Boulder blog is this – the danged Ethernet cable in the place I’m staying is so short, I have to sit on a hard-backed chair at a table in order to access the Internet. I’ve been under that table trying to unhook the cable and install a longer one, but I can’t get the danged cable out of the box plugged into. So it’s that, plus the fact that work is busy, busy at the moment. I like this kind of busy, though. I show up at work and then look up and it’s time to go. The days go by very quickly!



The picture I post today is of my beloved Fenway – the picture was taken at Christmas, and you can probably see he’s behind a baby gate, locked in the hallway of my mom’s house. This is the picture that’s on my desk top right now, and every morning at work, his sweet, sad face (because he wasn’t getting to open presents with the rest of us) gives me a happy way to start the work day. I do looooove my grand-dogs.

One thing I’d like to do is disabuse you, if you’ve held such beliefs, that Boulder is some snobby place full of rich people. It’s not. Don’t let anyone tell you any differently, either. The people I’m around at work are, of course, absolutely wonderful people. But I interact with people in other places and it’s an awfully friendly environment.

Saturday, I did a little shopping, not leaving the Boulder MSA to go to some of the bigger shopping areas that are pretty new between here and Denver. I stayed right here. And the “mood” of Boulder on a Saturday is just very peaceful. No one is in a hurry, and that sense of having all the time in the world washed over me and I was so relaxed.

And even though I’ve spent a lot of time alone, I just haven’t been lonely at all. I’ve tried to explain to ER, who still tries to say I’ve “left him,” that I have plenty to do and plenty of resting still needed for me. I like my own company, too. I have books, I have DVDs, I have my therabands for my home PT and some free weights. I have all I need to entertain myself and what’s weird is, I spend hardly ANY money.

I do miss “home” and got a bit homesick on the anniversary of the OKC bombing, but, as I told ER, I feel like I am finally unwinding and resting from ten years of complete overwork. It might actually take awhile for the past ten years to be exorcised from me…not all of it, because there were some fine times in those ten years in the old work place. (I would like to add here that I miss Mike Morgan and the storm chasers; the weather people here are just nowhere NEAR the caliber in Oklahoma City).

But here, my boss man, who has been a friend and colleague for several years won’t allow me to over work. He and I have talked about how we’ve worked ourselves to death before in our lives. He told me the following: “Dr. ER, I promise, I’m going to spend a few minutes every day thinking of ways to make you a very happy woman.” Now, he’s referring to work, but I told him that I haven’t heard anything like that from a man in a long time! The motto here is “Work hard, but play hard.”

The whole crew is big on going to lunch in groups and these can last up to two hours – my boss “gets it” because those lunches are more than just lunch – work is getting done, morale is being lifted, people are interacting. It makes the work place and the people in it happy. Shoot, he took me out to lunch last Friday and we spent nearly two and a half hours just talking about governance in the western states. Since I love the study of governance, I was in hog heaven.

Changing topics rapidly, I have a movie to recommend. I just happened to come across it when at Target Saturday. It’s called “The Whole Wide World,” and stars hottie Vincent D’Onofrio and Renee Zellweger. Two people I love (who could NOT love Bridget Jones or Bobby on Law and Order: Criminal Intent). It takes place in the 1930’s in the Brownwood, Texas area. Surprise ending. And such a lump in my throat, I had a hard time swallowing. But you should hear Vincent D’Onofrio with a southern accent! It’s worth it just to hear that. The movie was released in 2003; I don't know how I missed it.

And another photo here, just to break up the text a bit. It's Ice-T, being a ho. Goofy cat .

I wonder if any of you can remember or have seen another movie – called “Goodbye Again,” starring Ingrid Bergman, Yves Montand and Anthony Perkins (who won Best Actor at Cannes in 1961 for his character in this movie). Wow, what a great flick. And a great story. It’s in black and white, filmed in France and it’s so obscure, you can’t even get it on DVD – I had to purchase the VHS after seeing it on AMC about a month ago. The story is perfect early 1960’s and it underscores again for me that I was born in the wrong time. I’d love to live back when everybody smoked and drank and we didn’t have so much worry about trying to live a long time. Now, in this flick, though, I can easily see what Anthony Perkins (also Norman Bates in “Psycho”) won best actor and I’m also glad that I’ve never seen “Psycho,” because this is the kind of role I want to remember him in.

I read something interesting about Perkins earlier this week and it’s that he was completely gay until his late 30’s when he met and dated Victoria Principal. And I thought to myself…well, yes, if anyone could make a gay man bisexual overnight, Victoria Principal could do it. Perkins’ wife at the time of his death was photographer Berry Berenson, and she was killed on September 11th, as she was on one of the planes that was crashed into the twin towers. Sad, sad.

So, here’s a nice, long post. I wish I could do it every day…if I finally win my battle with the Ethernet cable, I might be able to do so.