Home must be here somewhere

I'm home again, but it's buried under lots of paperwork and things that need to get done. How did that happen? I'm back from a week in Memphis Tennessee--what a nice city! There's a trolley car that runs through downtown from the hotels, past the river front and down to Beale Street where all the clubs and restaurants are. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and maybe it's just my diet, but wow that was the best burger I've had in a long time. We also ate at a famous BB-Que place and Joe's Crab Shack which thrilled the rest of my crowd. And yes, being in Memphis, it didn't seem right not to visit Graceland. I never have to do that again, although he was a lot cuter than I remembered and he had those eyes. Anyway, the rest of the week was meetings and seminars which overall were really good. If there wasn't so much junk on my desk, it would have been a fabulous trip. I'll survive.

We left at 5 a.m. from the hotel yesterday and got into LA at about noon pacific time. I had a class in West LA at 5 p.m. so it seemed unreasonable to drive two hours home and two hours back, so I was going to stay in West LA for the afternoon and was in no rush--exhausted, but in no rush. I had parked my car at Wally Park where Peter had told me he was going to park his car. We found a tram right away to take us to our cars, but the parking structure did not look familiar at all. I had remembered that I parked next to the north elevators and they were white. The only elevators at Wally Park were blue. Peter found his car no problem and off he went. My tram driver (nice girl) drove around and around looking for my car, but that pesky physics, wishing just didn't make it so. Finally I asked what other parking lots were on that street and sure enough there was another one run by a competitor. We could tell from the street that they had two elevators (my very nice Wally Park tram driver drove over there) and so I got dropped off in front and found the north elevators and there was my car, safe and sound right where I left it. Luckily they also took a AAA discount. Don't tell Peter, I'll never live it down.

I was so tired that I thought I would skip my class, but we did have a presentation due and so I decided to have lunch and if I was feeling better, I'd stick it out. I went to the Fox Hills Mall for lunch and found a great food court with no problems at all. It's probably been 20 years since I was in that mall--it was very nice. I felt great after lunch and so I found the Santa Monica Library on the map and went there. There was no parking--I had to pay for parking in the court parking lot. I hung out and finished my homework and my presentation for the class and then asked for a three hole punch. The library had no three hole punch. So I got directions to an Office Depot and not only did their xerox machine three hole punch copies for you, but they also had my calender refill that is no where in the catalog for the company or on their web cite. Is the universe looking out for me or what?

My presentation went great and I was really glad that I made the extra effort to attend the class, because the first set of grades are coming out next week and the presentation is a big chunk. Now I just have to get busy on the rest of my obligations: Reflections, Tour of Homes, ABWA, Kiwanis, Division, YWCA, Girl Scouts, WTD, 2006 Conv., grading for my class, planning my next lessons, WIB check, my own bills, more homework, PTA programs, I want to prepare a program on the new bankruptcy laws for Kiwanis, my speech (How I hate poetry the way I hate chocolate), my humorous speech (they changed the date just for me), MY REAL WORK AT WORK PILED ALL THE WAY TO THE CEILING and I'm reading a book called the Baby Whisperer because we're going to have a baby in the house any second. Oh, and I leave in 10 days for Grapevine, Texas. Then it's Thanksgiving and Christmas and the year starts all over again. I mean I'm happy to be busy, but this is ridiculous. I need a cookie.