I wrote in a prior blog entry earlier today about the 20 year marker on Mary and I connecting again. I also mentioned the heavy duty part of work this week.
The rest of the week...
I did have a session with Kelli, my grief counselor, on Thursday. She originally described the weekly hour as a safe place to release my feelings. Well, I walked in, sat down, didn't say a word after greeting her and immediately started to cry. I could not even form words to go with my sadness and pain. And, during that hour with her, I don't need to. I think feelings were pent up because I had been so hectic at work with the big conference and all. So when I got to the safe harbor of her office, the feelings just overcame me. I told her the week had felt like being on an out-of-control surfboard and somehow the energy of the wave was not only propelling me forward, but also keeping me up on the board rather than falling into the water. Kelli gave me a book to read, and when I finish my current book, I'll start that one. So far, I have read, Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" and I am two thirds of the way through Mollie Fumia's "Safe Passage".
Also on Thursday I had breakfast with John Ellis. He is a comrade in arms in this crazy industry, lives in Austin Texas, works for our trade organization and is married to a wonderful woman who is suffering with one of those really weird digestive-health problems. They've done Mayo Clinic and about everything else you can think of and the recent doctor seems to have found a path for her to be able to live a bit better if not be fully recovered. God bless the both of them.
Dinner on Thursday was with a former coworker and a long-term friend and good guy, Milt. Milt is working in New York on semiconductor stuff and has lots of tales of how the new young turks arrive to solve one problem and don't realize the solution induces other technical problems we solved 10, 20 and even 30 years ago. Ah, the innocence and enthusiasm of youth!
My iPhone 4 arrived a day early on Wednesday. To give you a feel of how busy I was, I didn't get it activated until 4AM on Friday just before I left for Sacramento. Can you imagine an electronic gadget, in my possession, that remained untouched for over 36 hours from its arrival! Amazing!
Sacramento was on behalf of the Company representing us at a state board testimony/Q&A session. I guess I did good because we achieved the outcome we wanted.
As I drove to Sacramento, I had a Vignette moment. Mary's first job when she moved here from Arizona was with an organization called CAMLT. They represented the Medical Laboratory Technicians in the state of California. Decades ago, California started to regulate these medical folks so they formed employee representation units (not unions or guilds) to argue their case in Sacramento. CAMLT was the original of these units. Mary's job was to manage the hired lobbyist and to meet, greet and inform various legislative folks about the impact of proposed legislation. Mary said she loved this part of the law the best--creating it--more than practicing as an attorney or interpreting it as a judge.
The vignette moment was realizing that during her CAMLT career (1995-1999), she made the drive to Sacramento multiple times per month "in season". Once or twice she flew because she would continue on to meet me somewhere in the world. But the vignette moment was simply being on the highway and feeling her presence as I drove. Those were always long, tough days for her and when I got home I fully understood how she felt--I was the same--drained from the drive, drained from meeting with state officials.
Tomorrow is Farmers' Market and breakfast with Ingrid. Mary and Em are heading to a baseball game to watch the San Francisco Giants. I hope they have a good time!
Finally, today is Lara's birthday, June 26. Mary's daughter lives in Pasadena with her husband and two beautiful granddaughters. Here is another, "Wishing you a Wonderful Birthday."
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