Leave

My morning date ended up with 11 children. No, not a date with a guy -- my gourmet class! It was a last minute addition to my schedule as they were short in assistants. I arrived at 9:30am, one hour before class.

The more the morning wore on, the more I started to feel inept. When I expressed my concern, I was told that we should have had one more assistant and that the recipes chosen were not all kid friendly or cooking assistant friendly. I washed a lot of stuff and boy was I glad I didn't get my nails done yet!

The guest chef was also an attorney during the week. She seemed overwhelmed at some point and we helped her out during the dumpling making. The kids were starting to fling some dough. There were five boys and six girls ranging from 7-9 years old. Yes, I know you can imagine. I had no problem corralling my group. Kids thrive on gentle, but firm guidance.

I was asked to read aloud one recipe and then ended up finishing it with the kids. They were happy when I asked them to take their seats so we could serve them this portion of the lesson. We had them from 10:30am to 12:30pm. After all was said and done, I received a few hugs from the kids. It was 2pm when I begged off to leave. Not only were my fingers morphing into prunes, I was late meeting Sharon miles across on her side of Tampa.

(When I arrived to class, it was sunny. During class, it monsooned. After class, it was sunny and steamy icky. Lucky AGOL.)


I love Sharon's candidness. Here not-so-welcome mat greeted me below:



Sharon gave me a tour of her cute one-bedroom apartment and showed off her Filipino souvenirs which made me laugh. She drove us to Cracker Barrel for her loved Chicken and Rice dish. We chowed down on a late lunch/early dinner and became uncomfortably full.

Filipino flags displayed on a small store window assured us of our visit to a Filipino store. We shopped with our eyes, but somehow a small tub of avocado ice cream made it with us. While I showed her something online, she served us generous scoops of ice cream for dessert. I didn't leave her side of town until 8pm. I was ready to go and I could mentally hear Cabal call my name.

There was one stop at a gas station/convenience store right by my apartment. It was on a sudden idea to buy two lottery tickets (hey, you never know), but nooooooooooooooooooooo I had to stop and give directions in Spanish to a guy who was clearly lost and low on English words. It was late, I was tired and couldn't think of Spanish words. I could barely speak English, but with my demented map drawings and explanations, the guy was thankful. It really wasn't the lottery tickets for my stop; the universe needed me to give directions to this man for a baby hospital across town. I saw him as I was parking and knew I was going to help him. Sometimes it just happens that way.

*Kids in the Kitchen Menu: Cornbread, Chicken and Dumplings, Glazed Carrots and Steamed Green Beans, and Strawberry Shortcake.


.

Leave

AGOL Twilight Zone

I almost forgot to bring my lunch today. Thanks to an angelic whisper just at the right time, I went back inside my apartment to quickly bag my leftover container of spaghetti. Being at the mercy of the cafe downstairs wasn't as appetizing as my leftover. Bridget and I are going out to lunch tomorrow and I'd rather funnel my dollars then.

Guess what? We had the opportunity to guess how many pieces of chocolate were in a big pickle jar... I guessed 560 and there were 567! I would've won a premium/reserved parking spot for one month; however, since I had recently joined the committee conducting the contest, I was disqualified. My cousin Angie's response when I told her: LOSER! Sweet girl, ain't she?

Another thing to add to my AGOL Twilight Zone day... I was thinking of something to search online and the words "lucky happenstance" came in my mind. I don’t ever recall putting those two words together or reading them anywhere. On google, this link was listed: Lucky Happenstance. Before I read the whole article, I quickly scanned the copy under the picture as well as the quote below that. How appropriate.

I was having fun today with my intuitive side. It has been quite a while since I've had a whole day of it. When you are more in tuned with the universe, it talks to you and guides you. The sad part is that most people never know what that feels like. It feels like happy.


Rediscovered: Special Vintage Cartoon Panel* from Calvin and Hobbes:


*Angie had a copy of this on her desk almost 20 years ago at her old job in Tampa. I loved it and still occasionally quote it when I'm feeling small in the universe. Now she's in the big leagues of Los Angeles where she may see this in person 24/7...applied to hundreds of celebrities and accompanying egos competing in one city.


.

AGOL Twilight Zone

Cheesecake and Intuition

Note: This is a long post so I split it up into two sections. You can skip to the last paragraph after the section break. The second section is about a trait of mine and a person from work.

At first, I thought I was hallucinating and that time had slowed down to a crawl on my drive to work, but it was only the traffic jam caused by a vehicle fire on a main artery. What should have taken only 40 minutes became an hour and a half. Called Bridget on the way and told her I was suffering from road rage and to be prepared. We ended up cracking jokes about it which eased the tension before I arrived.

My attempts at catching up on the To Do pile on my desk were shameful. Traffic ruined my mojo...Went to lunch with my team at The Cheesecake Factory where we had a great time when we were not trying to move away from the uncomfortable comments made by my temp. I kept poking Bridget on her thigh under the table every time she said something that made me cringe. We ended up taking our cheesecake desserts to go since we were full as ticks from our lunch.

Our team meeting started an hour after we got back from lunch. Five of us were crammed in my boss' office when food coma started to set in. My boss commented that I was starting to fall asleep so I made Bridget turn the fan on and make it oscillate to get the air moving in the small office. My temp made more comments. At one point, Bridget who was sitting next to me with her legs crossed, kicked her foot on my leg as if her leg got a sudden case of Tourette's. It didn't hurt, but it startled my boss who thought she was on her way to get up. If he only knew.

When I saw Tawny in the afternoon, I thought she had changed clothes midday because I didn't recall her wearing her outfit. We both realized that we hadn't seen each other at all until 3:30pm. A bit of a surreal moment which brought us a chuckle.


AGOL Zone

Okay, I don't talk about this part of me, but let's just say I am more intuitive than most people. Call it a gift or a curse. There are countless stories I could tell especially with precognitive dreams. If I am in tuned with you, I can tell how you are feeling or what may have transpired in your day, etc. without you telling me. (MEBFKAY used to get spooked a bit especially when I told him I knew when he was awake because I would wake up at the same time. Seeing as he's five hours ahead and I don't sleep well, this was a slight issue. Sometimes he would tell me about a bad day at work regarding co-worker situations and I would describe their motivations and then hint at the outcome and have it come true later. I tried not to often because this falls under interfering. He was mostly okay with my gift/curse since his great grandma had it, too.) Talking to the dead? Yes, that is possible if I allow myself. My UK trip almost did me in during castle and church explorations. Jeezus. I had to shut that part of myself if I was able to enjoy the trip. I've read cards for people and held objects to give information among other things. You should see me park in a crowded lot, I will know where a space close to the front will open up. Don't even get me started on while I am on the phone with people. It can be a handy gift except when it comes to myself. Can't get info for myself in the manner I need. Isn't that the way it goes? Sigh.

Why am I telling you all this? Today, I re-approached one of the nicest (yet quiet as a church mouse) lady at work. Two weeks ago I had overstepped my bounds by telling her she needed to wear bright colors and was a brat about it. I was compelled but didn't know why until later when I got home. She's been shrouding herself with this faded out cardigan over her work clothes. I felt like a heel because she countered that she would get a new cardigan, but her budget didn't allow for it. If you know me, you would know that I have it in my head to get her a new one or two because of this compulsion. Now I've talked to this religious woman before about our lives. She admitted that she had been in a long term affair with a married man. She'd been punishing herself ever since by hiding the light I knew was peaking underneath. I've held back as long as I could, but mentioned the reason why today.

I gave her a heartfelt apology for my remark last time, but I told her that I felt she needed to be noticed by someone and in order for that to happen, she needed to come out wearing bright colors the whole time at work and off of work. I went so far as telling her she needed to wear lipgloss or lipcolor if she couldn't afford to buy clothes because someone needed to notice her. I apologized some more. With her kind eyes, she looked at me and said, "I know it pained you in your heart enough to tell me that. How did you know I was making some life changes and part of that was changing how I look?" We discussed this more and my other revelations about her. She looked like a weight had been taken off her shoulders and her face showed joy. Ended up receiving a hug from her because she was thankful for the confirmation on her decision. Sometimes I am the instrument where people get their confirmations on their lives or my words are the nudge they need for something. I don't take this lightly because it happens too often. There is more, but maybe we'll save that for another time when I get brave enough to share again.

It's late and I haven't eaten dinner. I think I'll have a glass of soy milk instead of eating leftovers from lunch at this late hour. May you have the sweetest dreams even if they don't tell you anything. It's great to wake up having sweet dreams.

Cheesecake and Intuition