Retreat

Tomorrow we have a non-retreat Retreat for work. I don't know why they call it that. Perhaps it is because we're only traveling a half hour south to Indianola for the meeting. Our whole bureau - Land Quality is supposed to attend. That includes Underground Tanks and Contaminated Sites as well as Solid Waste and Financial and Business Assistance - the two sections I work with.

I'm taking the bus to Indianola from the Wallace Building along with many of my co-workers. Should I take a book along to read while we ride, or chat? Should I be shy or outgoing? I spose it depends on my mood for the day. I'll report more on this development tomorrow!

Job-hunting - doesn't it suck? I've been trying to help Amy look for jobs in Denver. Job hunting is one of the biggest ego pummeling activities ever! When I looked for jobs - I would find things I knew I'd be good at. Then I couldn't even get an interview...

Good luck Amy. Kick job hunting ass!

Finally see Jane

Me, Vic, Jane, Sal at an ISU football game in Iowa City - looks like we're losing!


I finally got to see my college roomie Jane tonight. I had emailed her a couple times about getting together now that I live in Waukee part time. Jane has lived here for some 14 years or so. She and her husband David bought a rural place way back then, and now the town has grown around them.

I've known Jane since 1976 - so 33 years. Geez that makes me feel old. She lived on my dorm floor with my longtime friend Sally starting 1/2 way through our freshman year and during our sophomore year. Then when we were juniors, we moved into our place at 230 Campus Avenue - Sally, Jane, Vicki and I. We were all great friends and shared everything.

Jane and David have 3 kids - Morgan is 14, Cole is 12 and Jacob is 10ish. Only Morgan was there tonight. We had a nice quiche with fruit and a salad. Yummy and quite nice compared to my usual restaurant food.

As with most old friends, the years seem to melt away when we talk. We know each other's families well - including nieces and nephews. So there was a lot of catching up to do. Jane does real estate appraisals in addition to all her kid running. David is a Des Moines fireman.

Jane is a good friend. Being with her makes me miss her - know what I mean?

Folks were flamin' outta control

It was so entertaining when the boogie started to roll, I heard somebody say "Burn baby burn, disco inferno". Not really - it was more of a rock and roll 70's party - not disco. Nonetheless that's the song I had stuck in my head all week, in anticipation of "That 70's Party" at the Val Air Ballroom in DM Saturday night.

Ten of us from Creston (due to recent negative publicity, we avoided telling anyone where we were from) attended the big event - a fundraiser for several children's charities. It ended up being fairly pricey - I thought the food was included in the $25 ticket price, but it was a separate fee. Beers were $5 too. Oh what the hell - it was for a good cause and we don't party in DM too often!

We got there early - we're old. In our defense, the info said it started at 6:3o, so we got there a little after that. It was fun seeing people drive up in their lime green VW van - the driver had an awesome afro and platform shoes and his gal had a cool 1 piece jumpsuit (and had quite the abs I must say). Deb dressed the most retro of our group with her polyester shirt tied at the waist and a tank (almost a tube top), underneath.

We snagged a table and had a bit of food. Our group included Pat and Susan [their significant others declined this awesome event - Susan's sweetie prolly doesn't remember the 70's - haha he's young but not quite that young...], Deb and Larry, Bobbie and Jeff and Diana and Don. Plus my honey Pablo the Poolboy and me. Fun group!

Then we people-watched. Lots of folks came in dressed to the 9's in 70's garb. One chick (Pat later learned, by using her Law and Order questioning tactics, that the chick is 40 years old) was in a Dream of Jeannie outfit. The guys were drooling. Sproing (the noise she made when she did magic). Some guys had great wigs and outfits, sideburns and all. Other people went more with the hippy look.

We drank and danced. And talked about cars we had - Pinto, Mustangs, VWs, Torinos. Beer we drank - Olympia, Hamms, PBR, Old Milwaukee, Old Style, Coors, Red White and Blue and more. We reminisced of hair styles, clothes and music. There was a cool slide show during the event with pics from the 70's - Farrah Fawcet, Doors, The Godfather.

The band - Boomerang was excellent! They could do the Stones, Doobies, Steely Dan and more. I forgot how hard some of those 70's tunes were to dance to. But we managed. After 10, when the band took a break, we decided to head to downtown DM to see what was happening. While I'm in DM a lot, I don't get out on the town.

We went to Highlife Lounge near Court Ave. - it's right out of the 60's. In fact it's much like the Eagles Club in Creston! We drank 6 oz. Miller High Life beers, followed by a dessert slippery nipple shot. Designated drivers Don and Deb got free pop. We were home by 1:30 a.m. or so. My poolboy drank more beer than he has in quite some time. Of course I got another migraine - even though I didn't even drink that much. But it was worth it!

We had a bitchin' good time!

Busy

Last night the deck looked nothing like this shot from after a storm...

Yep, I was too busy to blog last night. I was sittin' on the deck, taking in a beautiful Iowa evening with my buddies and my beloved. (who is under the weather I might add). It all started like this...(flashback music)

I was sitting in my chair after 4:30 PM on a Friday. I had my annual mammogram at 3 PM at the hospital - they have a new digital mammo machine, (two tits (thumbs) up rating from me) that gives them an image they can view right away to tell if it will work. So I was back home trying to get some work done on a goal progress calculation for my job.

My phone rang - it was Bobbie checking to see what was going on for the evening. I hadn't given it much thought, hanging loose to see what was happening. We decided to think it over and talk later. In the meantime, I had an urge to have people over to sit on our deck. I texted McKims and Higgins and told Bobbie to come on over - Jeff could join us when he was done haying.

The house didn't look too bad - cleaned last weekend, and Paul doesn't mess it up much. I stared into the frig and realized how little party like good we had. Paul dug thru the chip/snack cabinet - a bunch of stale stuff that needed to be tossed. And the biggest problem GASP - only 1 lemon. Not enough for multiple lemondrop martinis!

So Paul made a quick HyVee run - he needed beer anyways. And we were on! I sprang into action, getting liquor out for the marvy concoction - made with 3/4 shot triple sec, 1 shot lemon vodka, juice from half a lemon and a splash of sweet and sour. The cup is rimmed in sugar after using the rind to make the edge sticky. Shake over crushed ice, Ahhh! Diana, Bobbie and I each had 2 small ones. Then we were cut off! I switched to cheap chardonnay, but only had one glass before feeling my old nemesis, migraine come on.

McKims brought a cheese/meat plate and Sharon had some delectable chicken/bacon things and dip. That was my supper. We laughed a lot - which makes the work week seem a whole lot less important...

My husband the TV star

Paul at his 50th birthday party last year

I'm watching a Iowa Public Television show on the devastation of last year's floods. The TV crew came to Creston and interviewed Paul for this special last winter. So he should be on coming up sometime in the next half hour. This is the IPTV link to the segment: http://www.iptv.org/video/detail.cfm/3883/tij_20090604_230/format:wmv

It's the full 26 minute segment of the show. He's on around minute 11.

You probably think Paul (Pablo the Poolboy) is only an expert in caring for pools. Not so. His real job, for the past 26 years has been as a conservationist - working for the federal government to prevent soil runoff, making the world safe for humankind. Ha!

What he does is pretty important. The things we've done to the land for the past hundred years has affected water quality - putting land into crop production that was never meant to grow crops. Clearing and tilings field and other land development in areas in the flood plain have have helped encourage quick runoff to Iowa's streams.

They just had his clip - speaking to interviewer from his office, with old pics of Amy and Jud in the background. Awww. And he sounds so damn smart and authoritative! I'm proud that my honey is somebody known around the state as an expert in his field. Plus he's pretty cute too.

Garage sale

My neighbor in Creston is having a garage sale. I was just over scoping out the stuff for Amy - who is due to move into her new apartment any day. My neighbor's mom-in-law used to have her own furniture/gift store in town and so much of the stuff is from that store.

I had a garage sale only once in my life. Once was enough! It took hours to carry all the stuff out and price it. People creepily started circling our house in their cars the day before the sale - staking the place out.

Then, and the set day of course they arrived much earlier than the appointed time. Damn - can't you read a clock? And no matter what price I put on stuff - they wanted to haggle it down. Like something for a quarter and they'd say - will you take $.20 for these? Jeeeez. Yeah, hey I have an idea - why don't I pay YOU to take them!

In the club

My niece Leslie emailed me yesterday about a friend who gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. She wanted to know if I, as the parent of a baby that also died, had any words of wisdom for her friend. I believe time helps, but there are just so many tears you need to cry. After nearly 18 years, those tears are rare, but we still think about how things might be different if Patrick was around.

So now niece Leslie's friend is in the club nobody should ever have to be in. And she got booted out of the "things like that happen to other people" club. I'll be thinking of her, and her husband and the grief journey they're on. I hope people wrap this couple in their arms and help them through this process.

On to cheerier topics. Last night I met Paul and friends in Norwalk at the Creston/DCG boy's soccer game. The boys lost, unfortunately, but it was fun seeing Lucy and Jim and Joan and Greg and my honey of course. After the game we stopped at a restaurant. Ah memories of the old baseball/football/basketball/soccer days. All three couples have sons that graduated in 2007. Below - one of Jud's early soccer teams. Jud was in his blond dye stage - right in front of Paul on the right.

When Amy played sports there were some parents we hung out with, but through the years most of the girls quit participating, so Paul and I usually drove to games by ourselves. With Jud's group, a large number of boys stuck together and stuck it out through their senior year in several sports. We parents got to know each other well, and became good friends.

While I don't miss the days of stressing over playing time, victories and referees, I miss the camaraderie we had. Carpooling saved us all mileage and allowed us time to learn about each other's lives and families. We became close friends. There's nothing like friends!