Showing posts with label Epiphanies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Epiphanies. Show all posts

Friday, September 5, 2014

Dragging Beatrice In For A Make Over!

Beatrice marched around the pool this morning, barking at the rest of us about what fools we are.

I have to be honest here. We almost never listen to Beatrice because she is kind of nasty. She yells, she jumps up and down (Richter Scale 4.2) while she rants and raves. She's the one who blasts the car horn when some idiot on their cell phone cuts us off. She's the one steps forward during bad customer service moments and firmly states, "Excuse me, but I believe your humanity batteries up the wrong channel, may I speak to someone with manners!"

We don't experience these outbursts very often; we try to keep her blocked from rising to the surface unless we are alone. Sinthya is the only one who encourages Beatrice to tell it like it is, "Sin tabues, mamacita!"

The crew sat around the pool in a haze of despondent fog as Beatrice went off on us.

"Lower our expectations? Lower our expectations, you can't get any further under a slug, you spineless idiots! Shove those asses of yours into some big-girl panties and start speaking up. You're letting stuff fester and then you blow up at dumb-shit. Look at all of you! You've got dumb-shit all over yourselves!"

Wrinkling her nose and curling her lip, she bellowed at Bill, "Go get us a dead skunk to cover up the stench of this bunch of losers!"

Bill tossed the cigarette he'd been attempting to roll all morning and headed for the gate.

"Where are you going?" Geeze, was that a bark or a bellow?

"To get a dead skunk!"

"Sit down, Bill! Sit!"

Between the insults, the barking and the bellowing, she really did expose some of our "shit" as she calls it.  Slowly, each of us began to witness the truth in what had, at first, seemed to be empty babble.

"Machado! How many times are you going to ask, ever so politely, to be kept in the loop? There is no loop! Get it....NO LOOP!  Go to Walmart and get a hula hoop and loop that!  Make some rules about how you will and will not be treated! Stand your ground! Make your own loop if you want one! "

"Carly-Anne, go create something beautiful! Don't let these whiners stop you from doing what you do best just because they've got their knickers on backwards! Let them take care of themselves!"

"Richardson!  RICHARDSON!....That's right, Mrs. Tension, You, of all people, could have said, "unacceptable" and continued to do your thing, whatever the hell that is, with your uptight suits and spiked pencils? "

Ownership of your faults and short comings is a hard drink to get down. It takes two tablespoons of honey for every teaspoon of acid, but we drank the concoction.  We looked ourselves in the mirror and saw it all....kind of hard not to with Beatrice shoving your nose in it, but, I guess if it works.

After going to our own corners and distilling the "aha's" we came back for a good Coach-Lombardo team meeting. We made some promises and proclamations. We signed some contracts with each other and ourselves. We practiced a couple of  "remedial back-bone" exercises and received a bit of "speak-your-truth" therapy.

Without Beatrice's intervention, we could possibly still be wallowing in CryMeARiverville at the Whiners Bar and Grill.  We owe her.

We're taking her in for a make-over! Yup, we're tossing out the brown pleathor walking shoes and burning the Viking bra. Her little blue dress with the tired pink buttons is history.


Sinthya is demanding that the first items on the list:
1. Eyebrow and upper lip waxing.
2. Toss out the rubber band and bobby pins and give Beatrice's face muscles some relief!
3. Visit to Victoria Secrets

We realize all the icky stuff has been constantly dumped on Beatrice. She's the one who always has to stand the ground; fire at the target; crack the whip; change the tires and check the oil! We've just been along for the ride....she even pushes the car when it's out of gas while we sit inside and bitch about how slow we're going!

Wow! Who knew her hair was so beautiful, down and flowing? BabaMara and Sinthya are teaching her how to french braid. She vetoed make-up and we all agreed, she's beautiful without it.


What do you buy for a skinny woman with DD's, huevos of steel and a lifetime of wisdom?

Dark denim skinny jeans, a kimchi blue tunic top with just the perfect amount of cleavage peeking through the cut lace, sunset-lenses mirrored sun glasses and turquoise Lucchese Kokopelli cowgirl boots just right for kicking butts!


Thursday, July 3, 2014

Big Dipper

Shouldn't one have to purchase a ticket, stand in line and willingly board a roller coaster if they want a ride?

Life has a habit now and then of grabbing one by the scruff of the neck (or elsewhere), tossing and buckling you into the back seat of a chute-the-chute; then standing back to watch the show.

The final two weeks of June, 2014 was filled with ups and downs and twists and turns. Not that I can't handle ups and downs and twists and turns. In fact, I think I am pretty good at it but, dang gum; when life shoves six months of living into a two week Big Dipper, a person's nerves get a little raw!

The final twist of the coaster ride was to be a two-day workshop in Lodi. We headed for the workshop on Friday but to be honest, I had lost my zeal for the seminar, even though I had really anxiously been looking forward to it for months. If I had seen an infomercial for

 Instant Zest and Zeal
Free for only $19.99 plus shipping and handling

I would have dialed up and ordered 10!

My eyes were swollen from crying, happy tears and sad tears, angry tears and tears "just because"!
My cup was empty. At one point, my poor husband stopped to grab lunch in a drive-thru. He nonchalantly asked me what I wanted! I burst into tears! Uncontrollable tears rolling down my expertly applied make-up from eyes already the size of golf balls!

He got me a large coke and a burger with extra onions! He knows how to make me happy.

I am usually a cup-runneth-over kind of gal but my cup was empty and raw!

The workshop was great. Aha's and epiphanies going off everywhere. I think it was Socrates that is quoted for saying an unexamined life is not worth living. He would have lifted his toga and danced, danced, danced after this class.

Class was great, learned a lot; still cried and melted down a couple of times.

We climb into car and head for home...or so I thought! Half-way home my husband pulls into a Target parking lot, grabs my hand and pulls me in. He gets a cart, drops two sleeping bags into it, two large waters and a box of granola bars.

"We're going camping!" he announces!  "I've always wanted to photograph Hat Lake at sunrise!"

Off we head to Lassen. No tent, no stove, NO RESERVATIONS on the weekend before the 4th of July and clothing completely inappropriate for mountaineering!  BUT....don't you like how there always seems to be a BUT in life's circumstances! But, mountains fill my cup! Mountains, starry nights in the mountains, the smell of camp fires (even if they are someone else's smoke!).


We pull into Lassen Park, find a site at the third or fourth campground. We put the seats down, crawled into our brand new sleeping bags and fell asleep watching a sky filled with bright shiny stars.

Just before sunrise, I woke Frank up. "Honey, I see a glow on the horizon, we should drive over to Hat Lake." He opened his eyes, smiled at me and was asleep, all in one breath!  I climbed into front seat and drove the two or three miles to Hat Lake.

What a beautiful day. Hat Lake was gorgeous, Lassen, as always, was majestic. We took some back roads once we were out of the park and discovered some meadows and vistas that could only be described as paradise. We also discovered how easily it is to get lost if you wander off of A Line. If you plan on wandering off of A Line, you should let someone know!

Our cups are full again. Thank God for mountains and lakes, for majesty and simplicity and mostly, for perceptive husbands!  Side note: hiking in gold dress-shoes isn't suggested but if that's all you got, what the hell!

"That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains."
Steve Jobs

"Great things are done when men meet mountains." William Blake

"My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing." Aldous Huxley

My father was much different than Huxley's. My father taught me that walking in the mountains was God's church. He taught me that we go to church to talk to God
but we go to the mountains to listen to God.

Mountains, wilderness, wild flowers, little streams creating their own songs; all of it talks to my spirit.


My kids once asked me what they should do with my ashes after I'm gone. I told them I couldn't care less. I've changed my mind and would really like my ashes scattered in the mountains amongst the trees and granite; in the arms of God and Mother Nature. That might make being in heaven that much more special!


Where do you go to refill your cup?  What feeds your spirit and your soul?