Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing: Stealing's Last Meme with Bud

41. WHAT ARE YOUR NICKNAMES? My dad used to call me "Mouse" because I am rather short and my voice is rather ... high pitched and annoying.

42. WHAT CAR DO YOU DRIVE?: No car

43. BEST DATE YOU'VE EVER BEEN ON? (IF MARRIED, before your present spouse) Curled up, watching a ridiculously bad movie and heckling it as though we were on MST, eating pizza, drinking beer. I felt so completely comfortable and happy.

44. WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? I stopped myself. I was afraid if I started crying I wouldn't stop.

45. LONGEST SHIFT YOU HAVE WORKED AT A JOB? WHAT WAS THE JOB? 9 to 4. That's 9:00 AM to 4:00 AM the next morning. I'm in advertising. It happens when we're pitching new business.

46. FAVORITE MOVIE? The Way We Were. By the way, I see the diva herself later this month at the United Center.

47. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SANG IN PUBLIC? WHAT DID YOU SING? "Tramps like us, baby, we were born to run."

48. WHAT WAS YOUR LAST FIGHT ABOUT? How cheap and awful my older sister is. Let's not discuss it.

49. WHAT STUFF DO YOU NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT? Keys, purse, iPod.

50. FAVORITE ITEM OF TECHNOLOGY? I guess it would be this here laptop. Or maybe my microwave.

51. FAVORITE WEB SITE? I spend an awful lot of time on Amazon.

52. DO YOU SMOKE? No.

53. IN YOUR EXPERIENCE, HAVE LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIPS WORKED? Well, we didn't make it as a couple, but I'm not at all sure it's because we were based in separate cities. We wanted different things from the relationship.

54. DO YOU BELIEVE IN ASTROLOGY? Not really.

55. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON WHO CALLED YOU? Someone from Obama 2012.

56. WHAT WAS THE LAST TEXT MESSAGE YOU RECEIVED? A question from my niece

57. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING RIGHT NOW?: One of the I Love Lucy nightshirts in my rotation.
 
58. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON?: This one. I love autumn.

59. BEST THING ABOUT WINTER? No 90º+ days!

60. DO YOU THINK WTIT IS COOL OR OVERRATED? Bud is the wind beneath my wings.

61. WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS WEEKEND? I'd like to see Looper.

62. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE? As Wilber eulogized Charlotte in Charlotte's Web -- "a true friend and a good writer."

63. WHAT'S YOUR BIGGEST REGRET? Wasting too much time on the wrong man.

64. ARE YOU SMILING? WHY? Yes. Because my cat Joey almost always makes me smile. He's such a loving big old tub of guts.

65. IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WHERE WOULD IT BE? I have a hankering to return to Boston. (I know, I know. If I can go anywhere in the world, I should choose somewhere more exotic.)

66. DO YOU PLAY AN INSTRUMENT? No

67. DO YOU WISH YOU COULD SEE ANYONE IN PARTICULAR RIGHT NOW? My best friend.


68. LAST THING YOU WATCHED ON YOUTUBE? An episode of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, a show I loved as a little girl

69. WHY DIDN”T YOU DECIDED TO TAKE OVER STEALING? Because I'm helping Crazy Sam with Saturday 9.

Sometimes people surprise you

I found a card on my desk Thursday night. Signed by all my coworkers. And it included an insert that showed a donation was made to my mom's favorite animal shelter in her name. I thought they had ignored what happened, because I'm the one who always does the collecting and card routing in situations like this. I just figured that if I didn't do it, it wouldn't get done.

My friend John is already looking out for me. My birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year. I have been dreading it ever since I saw my first 2012 calendar. I even mentioned to my mom a couple months ago that I'd like to skip the gathering of the clan and fly out to California to spend it with my oldest friend and her family, but my mom said emphatically she wanted me here. So I didn't make the flight reservations. Now it's a little late to do it economically, so I'm stuck. I'm not sure my kid sister is even going to have a Thanksgiving dinner -- without my mother here, she might just go along to her in laws'. Well, John just invited me this week to spend the holiday with him and his friend, Gregory. They have a tradition of their own, dressing up and going to a restaurant in the Streeterville neighborhood serves an old-fashioned Thanksgiving feast. I may join them. And even if I don't, it's good to know that he loves and is thinking of me and that I won't have to be alone on my first birthday and Thanksgiving without my mom, no matter what.

Kathy has been useful. My old and very difficult friend showed up for my mom's visitation and stayed for the service. That surprised me. Not only that, she came over and acted as realtor, giving us an estimate for what she thinks my mom's house would go for. (My older sister insist we compare three realtors.) And she's taken me out to brunch twice. I don't get it. If she was this nice to me a year ago, I might not have been so serious about severing ties with her. I'm grateful for her help, but I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Not especially busy, but nice

I'm talking about my Saturday. The first reasonably post-normal Saturday since my mom got sick and died. I'm starting to process what has happened, have begun missing her in a normal, dull achy way (instead of the WTF/angry/hurt/"where's my Xanax?" kinda way).

I threw on a black coat my mom gave me sometime last year. She bought it for herself but never wore it, didn't feel it fit. Still had the tags on it. Initially I didn't want it, either. It's all black and I can just see cat hairs flying through the air and attaching themselves to it. But I took it. I'm glad I did. I was happy to be wearing it as I began my errands this fine, sunny autumn day.

First stop: the food pantry. I dropped off a bag of soups and canned salmon liberated from the shelves at my mom's house. This made me happy, too. Then my mammogram. Then the bank to cash in 13 US Savings Bonds I had bought for my mom. She never cashed them. Since they were in both of our names, I was able to. It was bittersweet. I left the bank with $1,182 in cash -- $1,000 that will go to her funeral costs and boy! Am I glad to make help make that dent in that $5,000+ bill! But my mom worried about money so much in her life. I wish she had used that $1,182 herself.

Then brunch at my favorite coffee shop. Lox Benedict and a very interesting book -- Jack 1939. Historical fiction that places JFK as a spy in Europe when he was just out of his teens.

Then Trader Joe's and a ton of laundry and a new nom de blog. Yes, as of next week, I will take over as Sam Winters at The Saturday 9.

I miss my mom, of course. So many things I want to tell her. But it's normal for a woman to miss her mother. And it's also normal for a woman to go out and enjoy going about her life on a sunny Saturday.

I got mine this morning

I had my annual mammogram first thing this morning. While it's never fun to have your boobs squished between two plates, it is smart and being smart feels good.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. If you haven't had your boobs squished between plates yet this year, make an appointment and get it done!

Saturday 9 LIVES

Saturday 9 -- Bud's Last

But he advises us the show will go on! Yea!

1. If you could experience any life form that was not a human of your sex, what would you pick and why? I wonder what life is like for my cats. I hope they're happy.

2. Do you believe in the American Dream or has it passed through time? I'm a very old school patriot Gal. Yes, I believe in the The American Dream

3. It's been asked before, probably weekly, but what's irritating you today? My skin is very dry and itchy on my left hip. I think when I scratch it I look like a grumpy old man (I'm thinking Fred Mertz).

4. What do you think you'll end up looking like? (A picture would help.)

5. Has anyone told you that you could not do something? It was my parents' favorite activity during my teen years.

6. Is there anybody dead that you'd like to talk to? At first, I'd say my mom. But she died just three weeks ago and I think it would be too hard. So I'll go with my old standby -- JBKO. She's my all-time idol. I'd ask her how she managed to do everything so gracefully while always in the public eye. She couldn't even have coffee with friends at a cafe without looking up and seeing a camera. And yet she always looked cool, serene, and impeccably gracious. How did you do it, girlfriend?

7. Have you ever done volunteer work? Oh yes. I've cleaned kitty ears and litter boxes at Chicago's Anti Cruelty Society, written the newsletter for the Animal Care League, collected paperback novels for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and did basic grunt campaign worker tasks for Bill Clinton and John Kerry.

8. Have you ever walked away from a job and regretted it? Nope

9. How did you find Saturday 9? I believe it was through Kwizgiver.

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: Don't Talk to Strangers

I have been playing this meme for so long that waking up this morning and not seeing new questions made me feel .... ooky. Because I'm hopeful Bud will find someone to fill Crazy Sam's shoes, I'm still playing. I found a week I never played from December 2009.

1. Tell us about a night that you spent with someone who was a stranger, yet by the end of the night you were very close. I was a new employee at the agency where I currently work. There was an informal conference room party to celebrate an achievement and I grabbed a beer (the brewmaster was our client) and went back to my office to finish the project at hand. The account exec I was working with followed me to see if I had any questions or needed help. Perhaps because we each had a beer in hand, we got to talking beyond work. (In fact, he remembers me insulting his shirt. I admit I did hate that Hawaiian shirt that he wore on occasion.) Before we knew it, it was after hours and everyone else had gone home but we were still yapping. We realized how well we got along, both professionally and personally, and soon he became my best friend and closest confidante. He still is.

2. When is the last time you rode the bus? I don't drive, so public transportation is my car. I ride all the time.

3. Describe the last time you stood up for a cause. I got a call this week from Obama 2012 and yes, between now and Election Day I will phone bank. I worked very hard for John Kerry in 2004 (months of writing letters, answering phones, filling out forms for the FEC, recruiting volunteers) and that didn't work out well. My heart was broken into so many pieces that I have stayed away from the fray except for my checkbook. But, damn you, Barack Obama, that lousy performance int he debates this week makes it imperative that we all get back into the game.

4. What is something you would like to do, but you're afraid of the risk(s)? See above. I cannot tell you how shattered I was by Election Day 2004.

5. What would you most like to accomplish before the year is over? I'd like to lose 25 lbs. Or 2 lbs. Or a frigging ounce.

6. Name something you miss about 2009. The Bumbles' Monday Movie Memes. I played every week and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Mr. and Mrs. B. had a baby and hung up their blog, but it was fun while it lasted. (It's a familiar story, isn't it, Saturday 9-ers?)
 
7. If you could invent something, what would it be? I live in a condo building, and I would LOOOOOVE a way to somehow see if the washers are in use without hauling my clothes, sheets and towels down for freaking floors to the laundry room … only to have to haul them all the way back up because somebody beat me to it.

8. What first got you started blogging? I wanted to create an accurate snapshot of my life at any given moment. I appreciate Facebook for keeping up with family and friends, but it's hardly a true reflection of me.

9. How did you find this meme? I believe it was through Kwizgiver.