Category: Beloved Co-workers
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Look West
He is 95. He doesn’t look a day older than 70. I adore him. I am almost obsessed with him. When he says he’ll root for my horse in the Derby, I know he will. When he says he will take the “lunch,” I know he won’t eat it. When he says, “I have to…
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Postcards I Forgot to Send
I know. It’s been more than a month since I’ve written. I should have written! I meant to, but…but I didn’t. Guess I’ve been away far longer than I realized. But I wrote postcards! I know, I didn’t send them. Well, here they are as one, all those postcards that I really did mean to…
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No Such Thing as a ‘Little’ Flu
Do you know that ad? I do, quite well. Whoever created the Allstate “Mayhem”-type character to represent the flu season has it down pat–the words “little” and “flu” do not belong together. I have spent the better part of the past month on my sofa fighting two colds and what I thought was a third,…
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I Won! I Won!
“Sure, I’ll buy a ticket,” I tell the local Keys organizer of a military charity drive. “But do I have to be present to win? I’ll be at work in Fort Lauderdale when you have the drawing.” “No! Just leave us a phone number. We’ll call you if you win!” he says. “You have a…
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Praying for More than a Jackpot
I had just about given up leaving messages. Some days, his mailbox was simply full. Did he know on those days that I had tried again to call for the zillionth-plus time? “Have you heard from Kevin?” everyone, from the bell hops to the room service staff, would ask me every day. “No, not yet,”…
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Pigs Fly and Frisbees Do Walk
I wrote the previous post almost a week ago, let it sit, then finally posted it. When I went to work this morning, a miracle or two occurred: the mood was decidedly different–for the much better. My coworkers showed up on time, worked hard, helped me and each other, and even laughed with me. My…
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RG and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
With full credit to and incredible admiration for Judith Viorst for writing one of the best children’s books, ever: “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”. I woke up two hours before my 5:02 a.m. alarm on Monday morning, after tossing and turning for hours and tossing some more, and, finally, never…
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Please Come Back, All is Forgiven
In a world in which SoFla hospitality ads demand that applicants be “sober” as well as have some “recent” experience–i.e., not 20 years ago when you were working part time while attending college and likely not sober–the professional server is a gem hidden among so much worthless rocks and sand particles. This server oozes gentility…
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ADD Post
Student Loan Madness For months and months, I have been in touch with SallieMae to straighten out my six-plus student loans taken out over the past 8 years so that my kids could attend the college of their dreams. When you have undiagnosed-but-surely-have adult ADD, SallieMae is not a realm in which to wallow. Because…
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My First Prom
No one forgets their senior prom–the dress, the dinner, the anticipation fraught with drama. I, however, have no prom memories, because I never went to one. Before anyone feels sorry for a Restaurant Gal who was left home alone on one of the crucial archetypal moments of passage in a teenage gal’s almost grown-up world,…