tiara president and you're fantastic

I AM STILL LEARNING.
~ Michelangelo

started the day at first watch with three cups of joe (woohoo) and some fancy oatmeal. always tastes better when someone else makes it. then, k and i left for jacksonville. before we knew it, we were conference calling and discussing upcoming strategies of how to message this and how to coordinate that. so amazing what you can get done while driving from meeting to meeting. the actual destination, aka meeting, was "fantastic." got to see my pal get her new tiara as the president of all of north florida pr. she was adorable as she stood proudly behind a podium that was about the same height as her. she certainly handled the whole process with total poise and good humor -- my favorite combo in any public speaking venue. just fyi for y'all -- pr folk can be pretty persnickety about how you communicate..they're the experts ya know. table talk was good...talked to a former grocery store chain corporate communication senior director about life after a company she moved 2,000 miles to work for (with husband and children in tow) goes bankrupt. enjoyed a presentation about the importance of ethics, diversity and leadership from the current national pres. who is cooler than cool. met three flagler seniors getting ready to graduate in december. hugged wendy who is heading up the sunshine state and kicking some big ones publicizing one of the chicken soup for the soul guys newest project. stopped by mr. j's house but found it empty. he was still out and about with the "old farts" on the golf course. to wrap the meeting portion of this endless word spicket, the whole experience was full of good connections and an opportnity to see how things are done elsewhere. the drive was a bit rocky back to o-town because of the rain and i-4 traffic (one of my dislikes as you may recall). had to get back in the office to keep images in check. k goes back without me...where am i? at home? at the nail shop (that was the plan if i would've been told to go)? nope! instead, i grabbed the umbrella and walked from the parking garage after sitting in bumper to bumper traffic while cats and dogs fell from the sky. coincidentally, king j opened the door for me. "perfect," i thought. he needs to see my utter devotion to coming back from a four hour drive, to spend the last hour and a half in the office to deal with a total of two hours of traffic to and from the office. it totally makes sense on planet insane! just keep smiling at him. laugh at the funny joke even though your umbrella has made a huge water stain on the "only for special days" green jacket. back at the office - i perused the email which ended up being a good thing. chatted it up with my office neighbor and ate the last two of my favorite teeny dessert bars that were left over from yesterday's meeting. sugar always throws me into optimism. thank goodness! it made the thought of sitting in traffic again somewhat bearable. talked to sweet mother of four kids under six who doesn't believe in television, on the ride home...dinner is on for tomorrow night. told her how much she meant to trish and got a bit teary-eyed. the day i called her to give the sad news, i ended up crying over the phone to her husband about it. poor guy. i don't think he understood a word i said. men don't really speak female cry-anese. made it home in nowhere near record time and made a point to just read through catalogs and dream about getting new lamps for fifteen minutes that felt like seconds...unwinding...feeling social again...changing my outfit...ready to go back out to the big bad world of crowded roads and bad drivers. met the crew at i.d. for the thursday chinese food eating contest. mr. wonderful (with big mouth) won as he scarfed all of my lo mein. yes, he did order but as usual, he liked what i ordered better. heard the latest about some crazies that drive people, good and intelligent people, to question the point of using rational thought when it doesn't seem to work in certain environments with certain unreasonable indivduals. everyone is hanging in there which makes my heart smile. they got they're crazy shot that's good until at least the end of the year. that's where i went wrong. anyways, i ended the evening with a call from the be-fri. love that girl. she had lots of great things to share. hope you got the dog in...when i get a dog, i am going to send it to your house too. life is good, really good. the only reason it's less than perfect tonight is because the dolphins lost to the steelers. i promised mr wonderful a.k.a. #1 dolphins fan, that miami would bring it but somehow they fell short. my apologies to mr. wonderful. dragonfly doesn't know american football and also does not own a crystal ball.

from left field -- happy birthday m.r., wherever you are!

best thing of the day: blueberry tootsie pops