Shiny Things

You guys make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside:-) I came in kinda grumpy from a short nights sleep in a strange bed and I had all kinds of well-wishes from people…you are all too sweet!
I really have very little to write about today. I got to the office (not even our office…someone else’s that we are working out of for the time we are here) at 6:45 so that I could get a super early start. And I got a ton done, which makes me feel good. I have to drive back home tonight, which is a pain, but I have to do my civic duty (and let Munchkin help me:-), even though Smoking Hot Roommate already took her to the polling place once.)

Really I don’t mind…it will be good to see the little one, and I really get kind of homesick about sleeping outside of my bed. Yes, I am a baby…

I am actually gonna tell a story. Not sure why, but I alluded to it the other day and I feel like telling it at the moment. And Smoking Hot Roommate said I make her cry yesterday with my gushing about her, so I am gonna do it again. This will make me cry, too…lol. But the guys are in a meeting all morning while I am working on something so no one will see me…hee hee.

It is also in kind of the same general topic of my appreciation for the Rocks. [Oh, by the way, I am now referring to them as the Rocks, which is short for Rockerfeller. No, they are not actually Rockerfellers, but they have a name that sort of goes back like that, so this will work as a substitute].

Anyway…Mrs. Rock (SHR and Big Sis’s Mom, Papa Bear’s wife] died a little over 10 years ago. That has undoubtedly had a dramatic influence on the remarkably close relationship that they all have with each other. Mrs. Rock, from what I hear, had little use for many of the trappings of wealth; with one small exception…she really liked things that sparkled. This is actually a trait that both of her daughters have inherited (OK, so they are girls, and we all like sparkly things…)

Mrs. Rock had a jewelry collection that was substantial. Between things that were passed down through Papa Bear’s family and things he bought for her, she had a spectacular collection of stuff. Since she died, Papa Bear has been giving it to SHR and Big Sis a little bit at a time…birthdays, Christmas, graduations, things like that.

Example: when SHR was 16 or 17, Big Sis was home for a bit (she lived in London for like 6 years) and they went out and got their belly buttons pierced. Which Papa Bear was not happy about and apparently threw quite the tantrum, directed mostly at Big Sis. But three years later, he had an old pair of Mrs. Rock’s diamond earrings remade into matching navel studs for the girls.

Back to my story. Neither Big Sis or SHR wears a ton of jewelry, so in about May, the two of them told Papa Bear that he should start giving it to different people, that they had plenty already. Skip ahead to about July [I am jumping around a lot here, let me know if it is confusing].
Every year, Mrs. Rock’s family, who Papa Bear remains very close with, takes over the beach house for about a week and a half. Some day I will really tell you about the beach house, but for now, just believe me that it’s freaking huge (it is a "house" in the sense that the Taj Mahal is a "tombstone"). Anyway, Papa Bear decided that this would be a good time to give a lot of Mrs. Rock’s old jewelry to her sisters, nieces, etc.

And he likes to be kind of formal and stuff, so he had like a whole speech ready and stood up after dinner one night and told them all that he and SHR and Big Sis wanted them all to have some parts of Mrs. Rock to help remember her. Then he started to give the stuff out and had neat things to say to everyone and about everyone. Yes, there was lots of crying;-)

But then he started talking to me, and he said…I am para-phrasing, I didn’t record it…hee hee… "AM, you are very much a part of this family and I think of you much as I do my two daughters. We have never told you this, but you remind us all of Mrs. Rock, and the two of you would have been great friends. We know that she would want you to have these." They gave me a pair of earrings that I wear almost every day now...hee hee. They are teardrop diamonds with a little stud and a pear-shaped hanging stone. Not only are they nicer than all the other jewelry I have ever owned combined…lol…but they mean a lot more.

So there, one more super-sappy story:-P And yes, I am crying again…so what?!?!?
By the way, I got a message from someone last night that I will talk about later. It is another person I owe a ton to, but it is not quite as happy a story.

Answers and the next questions

Okie Dokie, you have all had plenty of time on these questions, so it is time for some answers:

5) AM was promoted on her first day at her job. Why? This took some searching for some of you, but most everyone who submitted an answer got it right: my business cards were mis-printed, so my original role of Junior Analyst was immediately changed to Analyst on Day 1. Since no one else held either title, it was not a big deal.

6) AM has two unique roles in her office. One is client-related and one is more of an internal role. What are they? Most of you got this, too. I am the office liaison when Papa Bear is in a foul mood, since he won't yell at me like he yells at the other people in the office. This sort of includes Big Sis...he yells at her, but she yells back;-) The other role is as kind of an all-purpose snoop. People tend to tell me things, so I am often set loose to meet with people in our portfolio or target companies to try and get the "real story" when the higher-ups feel like their presence is hindering the work.

7) She once gave my Mom a nickname. What was it? [Clarification: I have actually called her a couple of things, one of which is Mama Bear. But there is another answer that SHR was looking for.] The name was Mrs. Rock, short for Rockefeller. In this post, here.

8) What magazine issue did AM once announce was required reading for any of her listeners with daughters? [I think we are looking for a specific issue, and I like the substitution of "listeners" for readers...lol]. Fortune's Most Powerful Women in Business Issue...comes out every year;-). This was easy, since it is from a link over to the right as "My favorite Post"

The next four questions:

9) Where did we go to college? [The actual University]
10) From what country is Munchkin's favorite soccer player?
11) What kind of car does AM have?
12) Munchkin once did a wine tasting. Where was it?

One of these questions has actually stumped everyone who has submitted an answer...although I won't tell you which one until later. I will give you probably 3-4 days to answer, and then I will get to the next round of questions.

On the docket this week? My last week at work, Tinkerbelle's visit and a minor altercation in a coffee shop from last weekend;-) So you have that to look forward to!

Who has more cookies?

How was everyone’s Christmas? Mine was super-excellent-awesome…look, a new word! I feel like I put on about 30 pounds from eating so much, but there is no real crime in that, I suppose. Between Big Sis’ birthday, and then Christmas Eve with The Boy’s family and Christmas Day with the adopted family, I ate a whole lot of everything.

I am particularly a big fan of the little peanut butter cookies with a Hershey’s Kiss in the middle. Mmmm…me likey!!!

Munchkin is now gone on vacation…raise your hand if you are jealous (one hand up, but I have to put it back down to type again). The family she is going with came to pick her up bright and early this morning, and her plane is currently en-route to Miami. Then on to sailing around the Caribbean for a while. Not bad…

That also means that I get some solid non-parental alone time with The Boy, as well as the chance to hopefully catch up with some friends I don’t see that often. I will spare you the running “orgasm count”, but I can assure you that it will be substantial…hee hee. I would like to say that I will get some rest and relaxation, but I know myself better than that, and finally given the chance to respond to all of the “Hey, we are meeting here for a drink” invitations in the affirmative, I will likely run myself a little bit ragged. Whatever, you only live once!

Was Santa good to everyone? He was very good to me, even without counting the super-cute new little sister. I got a really, really gorgeous bracelet from Papa Bear from Mrs. Rock’s stash. He gave Munchkin some earrings, too…but I didn’t let her take them with her sailing…lol. That was sort of the most exciting of the stuff that I got, the rest was mostly clothes and the like. All of it was much appreciated:-)

Munchkin totally cleaned up. Beyond the earrings she got just about everything you can imagine a little girl would want (save for a pony) courtesy of her two pretend older sisters. If she is not the best dressed 11 year-old in school, then I don’t know who is. When she first moved here, I was a little hesitant about letting Smoking Hot Roommate and Big Sis be too generous to her, just because I was worried about her adjusting and all of that. But, as long as she does well in school (all A’s again, thank you very much!!!) and stays the little angel she is, then she can have whatever they wanna give her.

Anyway, back to work…I can’t put this off forever. I hope everyone else’s Christmas was as much fun as mine!

Sam's Town

OK, I can’t promise that you will find this interesting, but it feels really good to write it all down. There are some people I know that maybe have never heard the full, long version, either, so maybe this will help them a bit, too. It covers a lot of time, a huge part of my past, and a big piece of my soul. So without further ado…

There is a key new person in this story, and I will introduce him as Sam…with no explanation as to why I chose that;-) Sam moved into the same neighborhood as me and my two BFFs when we were all about 11. Immediately, he became our fourth;-) He was a little bit mischievous, super-cute, and an absolutely devoted friend.

Sam, BFFb, BFFg and I were as close as friends can be for the next couple of years, spending all the time we could together, getting into and out of trouble together and basically keeping each other afloat. It is the worst imaginable environment to raise a kid in, and the fact that we are all alive, out of jail and thriving is a tribute to how much we cared about each other and looked out for each other. I spent a lot of time at my friends’ houses in those days, always because they were more comfortable places than my own.

Things sort of moved along like that for a couple of years, and then in our sophomore year of high school, Sam and I started dating. It was really good, especially at first…he was one of my best friends, I cared about him deeply, and he felt the same. It was really a pretty seamless relationship, especially for high school kids. It was also a rock for me during some very stormy times at home (my mother and I never fought when she was a drunk, but once she sobered up we sure did!) I spent quite a few nights at Sam’s house, and his mother was an extremely important part of my life as well.

The only thing that ever really came between us, honestly, was “expectations”. I always knew I wanted to move away…I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I just knew that I didn’t want to live in a crime and drug infested ghetto where virtually everyone is on some form of government assistance. Sam had a more limited vision…he really just wanted to graduate from high school, get a job, and get on with living. He certainly didn’t want to live in the same place we did, but a lower-middle class area nearby was probably what he considered ideal.

When you are 16, those sorts of things are kind of irrelevant. However, as our senior year approached and then finally started, it became clear to me that we wanted very different things in life. Still, I loved him, he was always great to me and I enjoyed virtually every second I ever spent with him.

This “clash of expectations” did not exist solely between me and Sam. My mother, in her never-ending efforts to force me into the same exact kind of life she had, was adamantly opposed to me going away to college. She wanted me to graduate, get a job, get married, start having kids and maybe go to a community college part time if I was feeling ambitious. She had a million reasons…it costs too much, I wasn’t like any of the other college kids and wouldn’t fit in, I would start but never finish and then owe a ton of money, college was for “rich kids”.

I applied to colleges completely without any help from my mother, and in fact against her wishes. I applied to a school in Arizona because it was a) warm, and b) far away. That was it…I had never been south or west of St. Louis. Arizona seemed like heaven to me.

These parallel stories came to a head in the winter and spring of my senior year of high school (I graduated in 2001). The first major event was my receiving a fat envelope from the school I had applied to without my mother knowing. On what should have been a great day with a major sense of accomplishment, my mother threw a fit you wouldn’t believe, broke a window by throwing an ashtray and called the school to tell them I wasn’t coming. She told me that I was “forbidden” to go away to college. Luckily, the school ignored her, and I sent back a deposit on my own.

[Special thanks to Mrs. Willsey, the guidance counselor who walked me through all of this at school. Being a guidance counselor at an inner-city public high school is not an easy job, but she was invaluable in helping me apply, get in and then apply for financial aid.]

I wasn’t quite sure how, but I was going to move away to school, and she could go and fuck herself. My mother and I stopped speaking, she was trying to wreck my future, and about a month later, the other shoe dropped: I missed a period…I was pregnant (or, at least, I thought I was).

[to be continued...and yes, I am being obnoxious by leaving it at this point:-P]