So, I've had this blog entry in the queue for about 3 weeks now about the vacation that Jill and I took to Stone Mountain, which is near Atlanta, Georgia. It's a neat area, but I won't spoil the blog entry that is waiting for some pictures.
I decided, instead, to write a little bit about what's been happening to me lately. I was out sick on Thursday and I missed BH's trip to the Sample Sale that takes place in our office. What the sample sale resembles is feeding time at the local trough. What it actually is the opportunity for is some great deals. BH never misses one. All of the offices have samples that they discard because they are not carrying the product, or the photography has been completed and the vendor does not require the sample to be returned, or something to that effect. I really wish that I had pictures of this, because it is truly an insane event. What happens is that BH will go down a few days prior and case the joint so that she can eyeball whatever she has interest in. It might be clothing, china, home decor items, seasonal merchandise, or some kitchen electrics. The assortment is never the same on any two occasions. What marvels me is not that BH will fill her car with a litany of merchandise, but that she will give away almost all of it. Apparently, there is a large fellow who lives near BH and so she will buy him bathing suits, golf polos, or any item that she can find in the largest size we carry.
I don't know what I'd think if my neighbor happened over with a golf polo and a bathing suit in his hand and told me that he picked that up for me at work. I'd be wondering what the matter was with the outfit that he was giving it to me. Was it picked out of the garbage? Did someone throw up on it after a night of drinking beer towers topped off with a Irish Car Bomb? Did someone with an infectious topical disease wear these clothes? But no, BH does this to everyone. So, on Thursday she told me that she got a whole car load of clothing, shoes, and accessories, and by this morning, she had given all of them away.
The thing that I love about working with BH is that she tells stories that never in a million years would cross my mind. One of the best things is that in her town there a quite a few differences from living in the big city. So many of the down home examples that she provides bring me back to a time in college where I was asked to show an example of taking things for granted. I thought and thought about what has happened in my life and finally I came up with an example.
When I was younger, my uncle and I enjoyed playing Super Nintendo games together. One game that we particularly enjoyed was Tecmo Super Bowl. We would each take a team and play out our season and if we met in the end then we would play head-to-head. I would practice and practice so that I could come out on top in this matchup against my uncle. We were both confident that we'd beat the computer controlled opposition, not only for the 16 weeks of the season, but also for the two playoff rounds that we would need to eclipse in order to get to our matchup. Our matchups were especially challenging because all of the games against the computer forced us to compete on the left hand side of the screen, moving towards the right. Once we went head-to-head though, one of us would have to play on the right moving towards the left, which was a huge adjustment. We tried to make the adjustment by playing a best of three series where we would each take a turn on the left side. At one point, I had practiced enough that my uncle could not touch me. I beat him like a drum. Then, I got overconfident. I didn't practice a lot and we went to play against each other, and I didn't even make it to the head-to-head matchup because I lost in the playoffs. I was so overconfident that I forgot what got me to that point. I was strong at running the football, but once I got into that game, I tried to throw on every down because I didn't think that I could run well enough.
So, that was the example that I wrote in my response journal to a passage we read from Beowulf. My teacher wrote in my journal, "A real down-home example!" That's what I think about BH. She tells me stories that are very important to her, but I don't see the connection right away. There is a saying that she has, "There's a dead cat in that river," or something to that effect. What I've learned from BH is that this phrase means that even though you can't see...you know what, I have no idea what it means. In fact, I'm not even sure I got the phrase right. She's got a lot of great stories, but there are quite a few that have me scratching my head.
If I had to tell you one story about BH that will tell you what a wonderful woman she is, it's that on my birthday this past year, she discovered that my favorite cake (other than ice cream cake) is cherry chip. To her credit, there is no southern born, southern living person alive who has heard of cherry chip cake unless they've been hanging around some northern folk. They don't even sell Cherry Chip Cake down where we are. BH went to every store that sold cake mix that she could think of and there wasn't a soul that even knew what she was talking about. Finally, she found some on-line and bought some and made me a Cherry Chip Cake for my birthday. OMG, it tasted so wonderful! The best part was that there was a minimum purchase of 4 boxes, so there were 3 boxes left over for me to make throughout the year. I still have one box left now! Ha Ha! I'm so glad that I got to meet BH because she is a wonderful, wonderful person!
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