My Random Musings | Peaches Prattlings

{August 23, 2016} Happy birthday

Today is a very special day.

Today was my mom’s birthday and her first cousin, JFS, who always said my mom was her 20th birthday present, I was always tickled by that.

I’ve told you stuff here and there about my mom, now I’ll tell you some more, and if I repeat myself, sorry. I guess that would be a compliment, telling you the same great stuff about her!

There was no one like her, that’s for sure. One of the smartest people I knew, could do almost anything, and knew everything, her flaw… She couldn’t add any variation of 8+5, that always baffled me, and her, as you can imagine.

She had a love of art, she could Spend hours in a museum looking at every painting and reading every single placard. It was great and exhausting! We loved a lot of the same artists,admired the same techniques, the brushstrokes and it was fun and interesting to hear her take on certain pieces.

She was great at playing trivial pursuit, especially geography, literature and science, she couldn’t be beat. She loved playing thinking games like Otello and Scrabble and we would play Boggle for days.

She was a foodie, loved to experiment with meals, : what’s for dinner mommy?” “Poison”. Oh, ok. and what she came up with was usually fabulous. There were times she could be down to earth with her pallet, pb&j, pizza, breakfast for dinner.

Travelling with her was both fun and frustrating, there were planned walks, most things were educational, a good thing, but boring to a 13 year old! She made sure we got something out of every experience.

One of the funny things… we would drive through the tunnels heading into NYC and she would comment on how dirty the walls/tiles were and would we, GES and I love to clean it and we would roll our eyes at her and as we got older, tease her about it. When GES and would ride through the tunnels in Boston, she started doing the same thing with her girls and now, when we’re all together, the girls say something about cleaning the tunnel, the tradition lives on.

I could go on for days about my mom, but what will I talk about next year?

My mom as gear, she taught us what it means to be a mom, the good and the bad and we learned. I saw her in me with my kids, my sister does with her kids, especially those things we never thought we’d say! My daughter told me ib taught her how to be a step mom, which meant the world to me and i see how my sister is raising her kids, can’t deny it, don’t want to!

She is never far from our thoughts. GES… let’s get those decorations from the barrel up!

Happy birthday mommy. I love you.

{August 21, 2016} TV commercials as previews?

Have we talked about this before? Sorry, if we have.

It’s been happening more and more when I go to the movies. Now, I don’t have tv, so I only see commercials when I’m at my sister’s, well, she DVRs everything, so no commercials there, or the hotel, when I channel surf, so I’ve seen a few commercials. Regardless, there are commercials mixed in with previews before the movie.

Why? It’s called a movie, and before the movie…trailers or previews, not movie, previews and commercials. Those are for TV at home.

Previews or trailers are for convincing me to see another movie, in the theater. Commercials are for convincing me to buy a product, from the comfort of my sofa. And what’s to guarantee I’m going to remember that product? Hmmm…

Previews..theater. Commercials…home.

Soapbox over.

{August 17, 2016} Happy birthday SDL!!!

One of my most favorite people in the world is celebrating her birthday today…SDL!

SDL and I met in 1998. OMG, really? We’ve known each other for almost twenty years!! Can you believe it?!

We met when SDL was working on her undergraduate degree and I was starting my graduate program at Georgia State University. We took quite a few classes together and ended up becoming friends.

There was a.period of about five years thar we saw each other once or twice but then one year we reconnected at a going away party for her coworker who was my neighbor’s son and it was back on! And we’ve been friends ever since.

We’ve hung out, gone out, stayed out, traveled together, taken care of each other, I used to take care of her furry babies and plants when she’d travel, man, there are a lot of plants!

She was there for me through some really bad times and good times. I ask remember the day she stated talking about the adoption process and everything in between to the day Miss A came home. I even got a speeding ticket taking her and DJL to the airport for that trip!

I mentioned taking classes together, they were art classes. This woman is an amazing artist, you pick a medium, she’s excelled at it! Pottery, sketching, oil, acrylic, you name it…I was even lucky enough to receive one of my favorite pieces of hers as my 40th birthday gift! Talk about photography, I remember that she was one of the last people I knew who liked to develop their own film. So incredibly talented.

She’s an amazing mother to watch, I love seeing her with Miss A, the relationship is incredible, tender, firm, loving, silly and wonderful.

I love spending time with my friend, she is a trip, steadfast, opinionated, goofy, smart, funny and true. I look forward to the next adventure with this woman.

Happy birthday SDL, rock it!

{August 12, 2016} Sometimes…fortunes are spot on!

How does Confucius know so much! And how did he know to put it in my cookie?!

Ever notice how some fortune cookies say really silly things and sometimes give good advice and sometimes you just scratch your head and wonder what the person was thinking when they wrote it. Or maybe it’s just a giant automated computer program that generates random messages to be put in the cookies.

One time, LaLa had a fortune that said “next time you leave the house, go left”, seriously?

Ever get an empty cookie? Boo

One of the things I seem to do when I’m on the road is order takeout Chinese, especially when I’m working in the hotel. I don’t order that much, but I wonder how many people they think are ordering, I always get 2-3 cookies.

Well, last week, two spot on fortunes…

“Stop searching forever. Happiness is just next to you.” That could be so many things, PSM…well, he’ll be next to me when I move, right? My family here in Boston, my kitties right here in bed with me.

“Life to you is a dashing and bold adventure”. Oh my word, do I even need to explain?

Spot on…

{August 10, 2016} Uber driver…why can’t you all be the same?

Ok, I don’t mean the same person or all look alike, what I mean is manners, attitude, things like that. Let me ‘splain.

I started taking Uber about two years ago and a lot on this project in Chicago. After a while, certain Uber drivers have treated me so well that they have brought up my level of expectation. A good or bad thing?

I like a clean car, that’s not too much to ask, right? I like it when you see that I have bags, ask if I want it in the trunk and you get out of the car to help me or put the bag[s] in the trunk, I think that’s courteous.

I like a polite driver, someone who says hello, how are you?, someone who is didn’t frighten me with their driving.

So…to much to ask?

{August 9, 2016} A good day and a red letter evening…

The day was exciting, the evening riveting, ha!

I taught another great class, it was nice when some of them came in and told me that they heard the class last week was great and I was pretty good too.

Here’s where it gets riveting, hold on to your hats! After class, I went back to the hotel, ate left over Chinese food from lunch, finished my updates to the materials, did my hair, put on my jammies, painted my nails, cross stitched while I watched movies, talked to you and then I’m going to pass out.

What an exciting life I lead! Hold me back! Actually, it was nice, after the very busy weekend and the crazy travel day yesterday, it was nice to relax and almost do nothing!

How was your day?

{July 28, 2016} A nice end to a busy day

Shouldn’t they all be like that?

The day started early with some time on the treadmill, the elliptical machines were both busy. It’s been a while since I’ve been on a treadmill, let the sweat pour!

Of to the office for a very busy day, good lunch company, more busy and work, problem solved, whew! then a good bi-weekly check-in with my manager.

After work, I went with one of my co-workers, who I have become good friends with, LJ, to get much needed pedicures and then we ordered food while we walked back to get apartment. IWe ate, talked and watched the Wednesday night fireworks at Navy Pier. I also got to meet and play with her sweet cat, Max, sigh.

Then back to the hotel, a prior work and now I’m talking to you.

Pretty good day, huh?

{July 25, 2016} To travel Sunday or Monday…that is the question.

So…the life of a consultant, well not the entire life.

When you’re on a project, it all depends on the project when you need to be at the client site, if at all. Some projects you might be in your local office and never go to the client site at all or maybe just once in a while. For me, I am project based so I am there all the time.

That being said, some projects you’re onsite Monday through Friday, some Tuesday through Thursday, the thought being that you are in your local office Monday and Friday. Most projects are traditionally Monday through Thursday, which is what I am on now.

The difference being, when you are on a training engagement, all bets are off, it’s all dependent on when you teach. I’ve been on projects where I’ve taught six days a week, especially when your client is a hospital and the students are medical professionals, six days a week, could be all hours. This project has classes Monday through Friday.

So, when you have schedules like that, you have to figure out when to travel. Since classesstart at 9am, I travel in the night before, I never take a chance on morning of travel and I generally fly out the day after my last class. That’s what I’ve been doing, fly out on Sunday, back on Friday.

Now that training is over, I have a choice to fly out on Monday morning, be at the office by 11am and fly out about 5pm on Thursday or stick to my original schedule.

So, I’m trying something new, fly in on Monday mornings and out Thursday night. This gives me more time at home, the opportunity to spend more time with family and friends and the cats and work from home on Fridays instead of traveling.

The only thing you take a chance on is that you are at the mercy of the airlines. Monday mornings can be tough, with flights getting canceled, the lines are crazy getting through security, especially if you don’t have TSA Pre-Check. Then there is the getting up at 4am or earlier to get to the airport on time.

So…so you fly on Sunday, leisurely, maybe get to the hotel early, or like me, by 10pm, but your already in the city you need to be, you get up at a reasonable hour, unless you’re going to the gym! and get to the client site by 8 or 9am or do you spend the extra time at home and get up before the sun to travel.

Hmm…to travel Sunday or Monday…that is the question.

{July 23, 2016} There’s a storm a-coming

That’s an impressive sight!

Tonight, I joined GES, ACS, EJS and MGS and two friends at a NE Revs futbal match. That’s New England Revolution, for those of you, not in the know.

There was a threat of a huge storm tonight, but not until about 1030pm, way after we would be home from the match. It’s a hit sticky day in Boston.

Then, as we headed into the stadium, the clouds started rolling in. The nice result was that it started cooling things off, but the sons kicked up, I had to keep my sunglasses on for fear of dirt in the eye!

The sky opened, we scrambled for cover, three minutes later it was over, but the air felt cooler.

But…no matter what, the sky was impressive. The sky gets these amazing colors before something big happens, don’t you agree?

Mother nature is something else!

{July 21, 2016} Could this be more true?

Fortune cookies can scream at you!

I got Chinese food for lunch and my favorite thing about Chinese food is the fortune cookie. The messages can be silly, funny, introspective, good advice and sometimes it’s spot on.

Could this be more prefect for me? My desire to discover new frontiers…it’s time to travel! Let’s see…does tomorrow’s flight count? ? Or the next big trip PSM and I are planning for the fall? Or, um…moving to Hawaii? Yes think?

Let’s go!!!

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