Miscellaneous Again

It's been more than a week since I last posted. I am still struggling with a lot of work at the office. Not only do we have a lot of students with problems but we are interviewing for two new positions.

I am also keeping very busy with shopping for snacks and stogies to send my son and his buddies in Iraq and keeping in touch with the battalion's parents' group. It is incredible that these people in the group, mostly way-too-involved middle-aged mothers (like me!), but also wives, girlfriends, so's, dads, sisters, aunts of Marines, are so organized and in touch with one another. As soon as anything happens on the other side of the world where our sons are, we all hear about it. It never ceases to amaze me. And we also give each other a lot of support. Every morning when I open my email I have 30 or 40 emails from our group. We take turns falling to pieces or supporting the nervous wrecks and trying to "be there" for each other.

It has really helped me cope and I have to admire these people. They are organizing Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Whatchamacallit decorations for the battalion mess hall for the end of the year. They bake and send their yummy home-made goodies to the whole battalion. They write cards or send boxes to Marines who never receive anything. They console grieving families and whacked-out family members who don't know whom to turn to... They are wonderful and I love them.

Ok, now that I got the emotional, touchy-feely stuff out of the way, you may be asking WTF is that picture? Well, that is a huge (about 8ft) metal sculpture called "The Angel of Justice" by an incredible Haitian sculptor, St. Eloi. I came upon it by accident about 2 years ago when I was racing past the Art Museum at the university. Something shiny caught my eye through the big glass window and I slowly backtracked and my eyes met this beautiful thing! I got goosebumps when I saw it and I stood there for quite a long time just gazing at it. I can't explain why it speaks to me, or what it means to me, it is such a gut thing. This angel was part of a Haitian sculture exhibit that lasted about three months. I do not lie to you, I went to see this angel every day. Why does it make me happy, and why does it make me feel serene and why does it make me sigh contentedly when I look at it? I have NO idea. It just does. Since I'm not an outwardly religious person, and since I am suspicious of any type of fanaticism or close-mindedness religious freakiness, I know it's not that at all. I am not even going to pretend that I have any kind of artistic je-ne-sais-quoi sensibility or any nonsense like that. It is like when you fall in love with someone and you can't explain the chemistry or the magnetism you feel for that person. That's how I feel about this angel. It just speaks to me, sings to me, signifies something that I can't put my finger on. Go figure. BTW I hope you enjoy it. I do.

When I first downloaded the angel's picture I sent it to all my family, friends and coworkers. I printed it out and put it in a frame on my office wall. I had little wallet-sized pictures printed that I gave out to people close to me. Everybody got sick of seeing it. I even sent it to my deployed son TWICE. He told me during one of his calls "Mom, stop sending me pictures of the Angel, the guys are laughing at me." So yeah, I stopped sending it to him.

It is Friday again, and any of you visiting the Miami area will find me in Casa Juancho's after work with my BF, my sister, and our little group of middle-aged, crazy-dancing semi-alcoholics. Really, people, nothing really changes in life. We are all 40, 50, or 60 somethings and yet we still vie for position at the bar, are possessive about out boy- or girlfriends, flirt like crazy with everyone, sometimes get into silly little fights over imagined slights, shake our booties shamelessly, sing along to the songs we grew up with, and maybe get a little bit tipsy and have to be assisted to our cars. Just like middle-school all over again. Oh Joy!

Have a great weekend everyone! Love yas!