Thank goodness, I was so hoping we would have a white Halloween. 4 slopping snow inches and counting. Thank you very much!
Great news for local Utah Shoppers. It’s never too early in the season to save money! check this out! http://ping.fm/m4xr5
“When you find yourselves a little gloomy, look around you and find somebody that is in a worse plight than yourself; go the him and find out what the trouble is, then try to remove it with the wisdom which the Lord bestows upon you; and the first thing you know, your gloom is gone, you feel light, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, and everything seems illuminated.” President Lorenzo Snow, LDS Conference Report, April 6, 1899.
Last spring when I was a bit down a neighbor, a friend, who is usually rushing around with kids and sporting events, dropped off two pots of snapdragons! They cheered me to the core and on the first of September today, she called me out of the blue to see how I was. It made me feel like a million bucks. Again, thanks for the snap dragon lady!
Posted by: bluebirdsisterhood on: September 1, 2009
Healthy eMedia Marketing Attracts Clients and Saves Marketing Expense for California Dentist, Dr. Bruce Glover
Laguna Hills, CA – September, 2009 (PR.com) – Dr. Bruce Glover’s office manager, Kimberly Bilotta, has chosen WcWW’s 5 Step eMPowerment training series to learn to help their office reach local patients and their families online, and save on their advertising budgets.
According to Kimberly Bilotta, Dr. Bruce Glover has a basic Website yet as advertising for new patients became more expensive, he knew he needed to find an online solution to keep his office communicating and connecting to patients and potential patients online. The solution came when Kimberly found out about a newly-released eMedia training program for small business owners who want to learn to market, sell, connect and compete online themselves from Web Campus World Wide.
“Social and eMedia has rapidly grown to be a big part of everyone’s lives,” said Kimberly Bilotta. “As a dental office we wanted to reach into the 21st Century to extend our patient care through online communication.”
Kim signed up for the course and its 5 eMPowerment Steps and began to learn to reach the Dr.s’ local and national patients through social and eMedia. And, she adds, that if dentist’s think their patients aren’t online they are wrong! People get online to find all kinds of options including good dental care. To be competitive dentist’s need to provide online resources and communications.
“Communicating with patients through social media will not only make our office more savvy it will make us more efficient,” said Kimberly Bilotta. “Through applying eMedia uses online we can give a better service to our local patients. Instead of hiring a high-priced consultant we decided to appoint staff to be trained and provide better service by knowing how to do the communications ourselves.”
The eMPowerment training available through online coursework and live classes at Web Campus World Wide teaches small business owners and their staffs to market, sell, connect, and compete online. Each step of the eMPowerment Series gives foundational marketing strategy, tools, and online communications education that teaches business owners what they need to be successful in the 21st Century.
Dental offices and medical practices can avail themselves of this training series for a discount through the following code “HealthEMedia” to be used at WcWW.com. Prices start at $636 per Step and are discounted as much as 35% when they are purchased together.
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About Dr. Bruce Glover, DDS:
Born and raised in California, Dr. Glover completed his undergraduate studies at Cal State Hayward. He attended the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry in San Francisco, where he received his Doctorate in Dental Studies in 1989. Since that time he has provided dental care in Orange County and currently maintains a Family, Cosmetic and Implant practice in Laguna Hills. Compelled to provide the best care possible, Dr. Glover regularly attends continuing education seminars to stay abreast af leading technology and techniques. He presently resides in Newport Beach with his wife Lee and two daughters. His girls attend Our Lady Queen of Angels School in Newport Beach where he and his family are parishioners. You can visit his site at www.brucegloverdds.com.
About the 5 Step eMPowerment Series:
Take the 5 eMPowerment Steps to learn what you need to know about promoting your company 21st Century Style! 21st Century Style means you can do your business marketing, advertising, promotions and selling online for less money and with less effort. Each eMedia eMPowerment Step includes informative courses, enjoyable online classes, strategic assignments, and comes complete with Web Campus World Wide 2.0 Certification! Take the class yourself or assign a team member. In just 5 Steps you will be marketing, selling, connecting and competing 21st Century Style!
Step 1: Strategy! Create a marketing strategy for your business in 24 Hours.
Step 2: Tools! Learn how to use Social & eMedia to grow your business.
Step 3: Sales! Sell and Connect to your local & global Customers Online.
Step 4: Freedom! Create a Hostage-Proof and affordable Website.
Step 5: Velocity! Launch your Business locally and World Wide from your Website.
*All eMedia Training and Live Classroom instruction available on WcWW.com
About Web Campus World Wide:
Web Campus World Wide (WcWW) located online with physical offices in El Dorado Hills, CA, Woodland Hills, UT and Waterford City, Ireland, was created to bring to Small Business the eMPowerment strategies of the 21st Century. Combining the talents and synergies of Kim Power Stilson and Thomas “Net” Egan, Chad Stilson, Debbie Cluff & David Ryan, WcWW has become the vehicle to teach the The 5 eMPowerment Steps to Chamber Groups, Business Organizations, Medical Offices and Small Business Owners World Wide. Please visit WcWW.com for assistance.
Posted by: bluebirdsisterhood on: June 30, 2009
My girls went to camp Monday and texted today, Tuesday, to come home. They complained of bugs, heat, dirt, being tired, feeling light-headed, missing their electronics (usually attached to their heads yes so that would account for the light-headedness) and blah, blah, blah. Before they had left my girls knew their Dad, my husband, was coming up tonight Tuesday to help with the shift of fathers who take turn keeping guard over the camp at night. They knew he was coming and they knew that he could bring them home!
It was interesting they texted my husband, as he is a softie, and even more interesting that they could text as they were NOT allowed to bring their phones! As soon as I noticed my husband had been texting for quite some time . . . 19 to be exact . . . I asked who he was texting and the story came out. I grabbed his phone and wrote, “You girls can come home!” send, “On Friday when your supposed too . . .” send!
My eldest wrote back, “At least send some peanut butter bars . . they’re starving us here!”
So, being the sweet, strict mom that I am . . . and knowing my girls had not given up and their quest to come home from camp AND as I said knowing my husband is a softie . . . I baked 4 dozen peanut butter bars for the 25 or so girl campers — they are sooo good the bars, not necessarily but most hopefully the girls too — and packed with a card that said . . . As requested, here are your, “I will make you do extra chores if you come home early so you may as well get over your homesickness” peanut butter bars!
I had to duct tape the box shut so my husband wouldn’t dive into them on the way up the mountain to camp. You think everyone got the message? This is my week . . . me and 1 child and even without a snoring husband for one night . . . have the peanut butter bars and stay at camp! This is my week! Take That!
Here is the recipe — I usually double it!!! I think it was Betty Crocker’s originally! My advice for the day . . . no matter how hot it is to turn the oven on . . . bake the bars and keep the kids at camp! Kim Power Stilson
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup magerine or butter
1/3 crunchy peanut butter
1 egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup regular oats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Mix sugar, butter, peanut butter and egg. stir in flour, baking powder and oats. Pat into a foil covered pan — 9 by 13 or if doubled use a larger rimmed cookie sheet. Bake 17 to 22 minutes on 350 or until golden yummy brown. Cool while making chocolate peanut butter frosting!
Frosting:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
cocoa powder
milk
vanilla
You know what to do with these . . . when creamy spread on bars!!! Pack with a bow and send to camp and then relax!
Posted by: bluebirdsisterhood on: June 23, 2009
I sat down to pick up a conversation on Skype and typed in the words . . . Hel . . . when Skype kindly informed me that ‘Hell’ was not in my contact list. I can’t tell you how enormously relieved I was to be told that and how kind of Skype to let me know!
I started thinking about how appropriate that message was this morning. I have worked so hard at being good lately – not yelling at the kids, not loosing faith, serving others in need although suffering myself, watching my 11 month old niece even while I had a million other things to do, holding tight to my dreams, focusing on my kids when they talk to me and Listening, yes, listening, and ignoring rude people.
The very latter has been tough this weekend . . . let me start explaining by asking you if I told you we had a garage sale? We sold all sorts of things – valuable, once valuable to us, and oddly valuable to others. In anticipation of our trek to Southern California for Law school, we sold things we loved that we knew from experience would be difficult to move. In my bedroom, which is very large with high ceilings and a wall of windows, my oasis, my office, my haven, I have a very fancy entertainment center too big to move with us into a home, without the same kind of space, which undoubtedly we won’t get in California. I brought people inside from the drive who expressed interest in buying furniture which is only 2 years old and in lovely condition. Some of the people I brought into my room actually made comments – yes, in front of me – about how I had decorated the room. It was as they were in RC Willey or some fancy furniture store and felt compelled to criticize. They said things while pointing to my bedroom furniture and window seats piled full of pillows – which were not on sale – like, “I wouldn’t pay $2 for that!” “I don’t like the color . . . .(of my bedspread? Who asked you?) “This rug doesn’t go with the room!” “I couldn’t sleep with all those windows!” “I wouldn’t put that in MY house” “This is to fancy for me!” One lady who came into my home grunted in distaste as I showed her what we were offering in our front room. When she wanted to know what else I had, so I mentioned the entertainment center in my room, with obvious reluctance to show her into my room. She bowled her way in, practically shouted that she couldn’t use that, “didn’t I know she only had 8 foot ceilings in her basement?!” and then stomped her feet like a child before fleeing the premise as if I had let loose poison gas (no, I hadn’t) and that was one of the nicer experiences I had!
Okay, lest you think I am a slob . . . (I am not, well at least NOT when I know people will be coming into my room!!!) . . . you need to know that my room is perfectly lovely to me and the fact that I am not a designer doesn’t in any way excuse the thoughtless comments of people coming in to look at one piece of furniture for sale in my room. I mean isn’t it bad enough that people offered .0001 cents on the dollar for my lovely things spread out on the drive? I did expect that but to come into my home and see furniture that I had obviously chosen and cared for and critique it in front of me like they were at a home show and I was a real estate agent and they were going to show how much they didn’t like it before they made an offer?
By the end of Day 1 of our 2-day garage sale, I was thinking awfully unkind things about my fellow man.
Now I must add here that with all this we had some amazingly nice people – people who paid full price knowing they were getting a good deal. People who helped us through the process – like Chad’s kind “NEW” parents who brought their camper down, parked in the driveway for few days, and helped us do everything for the sale AND weeded our front drive, made dinner, and fixed our screens so I have a lovely fly-less breeze in our house. There were those kind folks who came in to chat, buy a few books for the cause, and kindly remark that they would miss us if we moved. In spite of the goodness I did receive from those few, I am human, and felt invaded, violated and hurt by the thoughtless remarks of people, people who by the way came in made their comments in my home AND . . . incidentally, did not buy a thing!
A few days have passed, remnants of the garage sale packed into the garage for the next one (I know what could we be thinking?!), during which I won’t be inviting people into my home without tying gags to their mouths.
Honestly it has been weirdly difficult! I can’t walk into my room without remembering those strangers who critiqued my haven. I feel invaded and somehow less comfortable! So, obviously my thoughts are not kind and most surely not get me into Heaven! So, you can see why I would be relieved to know that ‘hell’ is not in my contact list. So, today, since Skype has chosen to forgive me, and give me a second chance, perhaps I should follow suite, and forgive and forget! I forgive you rude garage sales attendees who critiqued my haven and didn’t buy a thing! I forgive you but please don’t come back! There, done, gone forgotten! I wonder how Skype executives would feel about the new service they have provided?
Posted by: bluebirdsisterhood on: June 13, 2009
Woodland Hills, UT, El Dorado Hills, CA & Waterford, Ireland — June 11, 2009 (PR.com) – Kim Power Stilson and her family were among the first of their friends to be hit by what is euphemistically referred to as the New Economy. Starting in 2006 with a series of client’s who couldn’t pay their invoices, Kim lost a business she poured her life into for almost 7 years and by the beginning of 2008 she was in the same position then as millions around the globe are today – well-educated, well-experienced – and needing to find work.
Finding no success on her job hunt, she read every “power of positive thinking” type of book out there and some twice while asking herself why she had had failed. One day, on a street corner, she saw a professionally-attired man with his family holding a sign that said “Need Work.” She watched as the car in front of her rolled down their window and handed over ten bucks. At first she felt sad at the thought of the kind of solution ten bucks would offer that man and his family and then it hit her how close she and her family were to being in the same position. She then asked a question that changed her life.
“Why do some people start their own business, out of their garage, or dining room, and end up million billionaires, while some of us pour our lives into our business and end up losing our homes and holding a sign on a street corner that says ‘Need Work’?”
From that day, with little business and no job to claim her time, she went on a quest to answer that question and what she found on her search to keep from joining the man on the corner was a surprise. It took 18 months but she found that the difference between being a successful million billionaire and standing on a street corner was as simple as each individual business owner’s answer to 10 Questions.
Kim took the fresh perspective her own answers to the 10 questions gave her and revamped her business in a way that would do the most good for her clients in the new economy. Instead of offering her services individually, she duplicated her strategic marketing services into an online marketing training, thus offering an inexpensive way for every business owner to learn to market their products 21st Century Style themselves, instead of paying a consultant to do it for them.
Within a few months Kim had requests from major training companies for her services and when Kim garnered the attention of Tom Egan of the Web Campus Word Wide, (WcWW) who also believed in giving power to the small business owners, “The 5 Step eMedia eMPowerment Series” was born. Their training series is now taken by business owners in the U.S., U.K. and India with positive results. Kim even won an award for her efforts. She says that as soon as she answered the 10 Questions, things got better and she found success where recently she had only found failure!
“Needing work and creating your own doesn’t mean re-inventing the wheel, it may be just as simple as finding a new way to roll the wheel you’ve got!” said Kim Power Stilson. “On my quest, rather than confirming what I thought, that businesses fail because success is difficult and too expensive, I actually discovered that right now is the easiest and least expensive time in the history of the world to make money, become famous and achieve success!”
At the request of friends, Kim put the 10 Questions into a guide and named it in honor of the family she saw holding the “need work” sign on the street and in the spirit of the car who stopped to hand them ten bucks. The Ten Buck Solution for 21st Century Success asks 10 Questions, with each question followed by an Assignment that will help you come up with a positive answer to that question. If you are thinking about starting a business or have a business, the difference between success and failure may reside in knowing your own answers to these10 questions.
“You never know what will happen after you read this . . . These 10 questions and assignments may make the difference between creating your own work or holding a sign that says ‘Need Work’,” said Stilson. “I can promise you that the information is worth at least the ten bucks you would give to help someone, and I have the highest hopes it will be worth many more thousands to all the business owners like me who are on a quest for 21st Century Success!”
The Ten Buck Solution for 21st Century Success is offered as a complimentary gift to business owners across the globe needing work. You must get the ten buck solution if you have or are thinking about starting a successful business in the 21st Century. Please go to www.WcWW.com or www.powerstrategies.TV to get your Ten Buck Solution code.
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About The Ten Buck Solution:
Need Work? Create your own 21st Century Success starting with the Ten Buck Solution a Pre-eMPowerment Step offered by Kim Power Stilson and the strategists from Web Campus World Wide. The Ten Buck Solution has two components: 1. 10 Questions & 10 Assignments in a green-version eGuide training called The Ten Buck Solution for 21st Century Success, AND 2. As an affordable Ten Buck per hour training solution for business owners who want to learn how to market, sell and compete online through the eMPowerment Series on the Web Campus World Wide at www.WcWW.com. The Ten Buck Solution for 21st Century Success is offered as a complimentary gift to business owners across the globe who are well-educated, well-experienced, and need work. You must get the ten buck solution if you have or are thinking about starting a successful business in the 21st Century. Please go to www.WcWW.com to get your Ten Buck Solution code.
About Kim Power Stilson:
Kim Power Stilson has helped 50,000 businesses to share their story online! The author of “The Ten Buck Solution for 21st Century Success” and The 5 Step eMPowerment Series, Kim is also an award-winning pioneer of Internet Talk Radio and hosts a weekly show on several syndicated sites. A graduate of the prestigious Brigham Young University, Kim is a dual citizen, who divides her time between the United States, England & Ireland. She has 4 dogs, 3 kids, 2 birds and a cat and a very patient husband. For more information, contact kim@powerstrategies.TV. Join her on Facebook and Twitter!
About WcWW:
WcWW (Web Campus World Wide) located online with physical offices in El Dorado Hills, CA, Woodland Hills, UT and Waterford City, Ireland, was created to bring to Small Business the eMPowerment strategies of the 21st Century. Combining the talents and synergies of Kim Power Stilson and Thomas “Net” Egan, Chad Stilson, Debbie Cluff & David Ryan, WcWW has become the vehicle to provide The 5 eMPowerment Steps to Small Business Owners World Wide. Please visit www.WcWW.com.
Posted by: bluebirdsisterhood on: June 4, 2009
Out of work for 21 months, small business owner advocates Ten Buck Solution for 21st Century Success
El Dorado Hills, CA, & Salt Lake City, UT, & Waterford, Ireland, June 6 2009 – (PR.com) – Need Work? She was among the first to be hit by what is euphemistically referred to as the New Economy. Starting in 2006 with a series of client’s who couldn’t pay their invoices; she lost a business she poured her soul into for almost 7 years. The final blow, the loss of her husband’s job, and by the beginning of 2008, Kim Power Stilson was left as poor and unsuccessful as she had ever been. She was then in the same position as millions around the globe are today – well-educated, well-experienced – and needing to find work.
Finding no success on her job hunt, she read every “power of positive thinking” book out there and some twice while asking herself why she had had failed. One day, she saw a professionally attired man with his family holding a sign that said “Need Work.” She watched as the car in front of her rolled down their window and handed over ten bucks. She realized then how close she and her family were to being in the same position. She then asked a question that changed her life.
“Why do some people start their own business like I have, out of their garage, or dining room, and end up million billionaires, while some of us pour our lives into our business end up losing our homes and holding a sign on a street corner that says ‘Need Work’?”
From that day, with no business claim she time, she went on a quest to find that answer. What she found after 18 months of searching surprised her. Instead of finding that small business failure happened because of difficulty and expense, she discovered that now is easiest and least expensive time, in the history of the world, to make money, become famous and achieve success. The difference between being a successful million billionaire and standing on a street corner was in each person’s answer to 10 simple Questions. She applied the knowledge, got back to work, found success, and put the Ten Questions into a guide called “The Ten Buck Solution for 21st Century Success” named after the ten bucks she had seen given months earlier.
If you are thinking about starting a business or have a business, the difference between success and failure may be, knowing YOUR answer to these10 questions. For Kim it has already made the difference of enjoying success and holding a sign on the street corner.
“If you need work, and are thinking about creating your own, you MUST consider your answer to the 10 questions,” said Kim Power Stilson. “When you do, you will find that now is the best time to create your own successful business!”
The price of the guide and training delivered on the World Campus Web Wide is Ten Bucks, yet it is her gift to you if you if you need work. “I can’t promise the solution is as easy as handing Ten Bucks out a car window, yet I hope it makes the difference between you achieving success or standing on the street corner holding a sign that says “Need Work”, it sure has for me!” Please go to www.powerstrategies.TV and WcWW.com, to get your copy of the “The Ten Buck Solution for 21st Century Success” Kim’s gift to those like her who need work!
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About The Ten Buck Solution:
Need Work? Create your own 21st Century Success starting with the Ten Buck a Pre-eMPowerment Step offered by Kim Power Stilson and the strategists from Web Campus World Wide. The Ten Buck Solution has two components: 1. 10 Questions & 10 Assignments in an green-version eGuide training called “The Ten Buck Solution for 21st Century Success” AND, 2. As a very affordable Ten Buck per hour training solution for business owners who want to learn how to market, sell and compete online.
“The Ten Buck Solution for 21st Century Success” is offered as a complimentary gift to business owners across the globe who are well-educated, well-experienced, and need work. You must get the ten buck solution if you have or are thinking about having a successful business in the 21st Century. Please go to WcWW.com to get your Ten Buck Solution code.
About Kim Power Stilson:
Kim Power Stilson has helped 50,000 businesses to share their story online! The author of “The Ten Buck Solution for 21st Century Success” and The 5 Step eMPowerment Sersies, Kim is also an award-winning pioneer of Internet Talk Radio and hosts a weekly show on several syndicated sites. Kim Power Stilson shares expert advice in magazines, is a sought after speaker for corporations and universities and has been featured in national publications and across the Web. A graduate of the prestigious Brigham Young University, Kim is the founder of the Bluebird Sisterhood, sits on several boards and loves to watercolor, play tennis, snow ski, write, and be near the sea. A dual citizen, Kim divides her time between the United States, England & Ireland. She has 4 dogs, 3 kids, 2 birds and a cat and a very patient husband. For more information, contact kim@powerstrategies.TV. Join her on Facebook and Twitter!
Posted by: bluebirdsisterhood on: May 29, 2009
I was sitting at my desk which sits in front of a huge paned window. The window looks out across my back garden. From my desk I can see the through 30 or so trees up into the snow covered mountain peaks reaching for patches of blue sky.
It is a rule in my house that if Mom, me, with her back to the door, is seen furiously typing away or conferencing on Skype, she is NOT to be disturbed. Sometimes as I type, face toward my lap top, sun streaming in, I feel as if I am truly in my own world, the words flow through my fingers on to the keyboard and it is those moments, lost in lap top reverie that my family knows not to interupt. Even so, I can always feel when someone has come up behind me hoping for a break in the conversation or the keys.
I usually know by instinct, who they are and what they may want. Remember the old saying “Mom has eyes in the back of her head?” my kids think I do. I let them think this though I can just tell by the shuffle of feet who it is that has entered from behind threatening to interrupt the flow of my work. I hate to be distracted when on a roll and will sadly often snap out, “Ask your father!” before they get within 3 feet of my chair. Some days they get a little closer and actually place a written note in front of me. One, from my daughter, was simply written, “Sleep over?, Kiersten’s, her parents will be home! Check if Yes!” As her note left out an option for a no, I checked. Approval more so, for her positive and respectful approach, rather really than the plan.
On this day I was so immersed in work that I did not sense or notice anyone beside me and when he spoke I was startled. My Dad lives in our basement apartment and often pops in during the day to check on happenings. Usually I am too busy typing away to pay him much notice. Often he will speak at me from the hall and if I don’t answer he gets the message that I am on a deadline and not to be disturbed.
Today was different, he said, “Working away?” and as that was obvious I felt both irritated and annoyed to be interrupted. Usually I ignore anyone who breaks the rule but for some reason on that day I gave in and partially turned round to see what he wanted, and when I did, he handed me $20 bucks.
Now I don’t know about anyone else but having my father hand me $20 bucks hasn’t happened in years. Suddenly, I was 16 again, hoping for the car keys and a little spending money.
Back then it was a tradition to go to Thrifty’s for ice cream. Thrifty’s was at the edge of an outdoor mall where I lived in California. Cones were a quarter and sometimes there were cute guys hanging around. Now Thrifty’s was only a mile or so away and in our pre-driving days had been content to walk. Yet now 16, some of us had our licenses and we felt we could not be seen walking, it was only fitting for us to drive!
Yet to drive required the privilege of keys. So we would call around to see who could get money and car keys out of their Father for an ice cream run. Each of us would hang up the phone and cautiously risk the wrath of Dad to ask for the keys and a few bucks. The person first victorious would ring the rest of us.
My father was an unpredictably tempered man and I would stall hoping for the phone to ring before I had to actually ask him. At my house we had one car, so keys were tough to get, but money was even tougher. My dad was an entrepreneur, molded by his hard-fought youth in the post war days of England, and cars and money were not something you availed yourself of lightly! So, with lead feet, I rarely made it to ask my father when with relief I would hear the phone ring. Usually, it would be Kathy, happily sharing that she had the keys and the money and the money as well. (Her family had two kids to our six kids and they had 2 cars as well.) Victorious, we would hop in to her parent’s huge van for 2 minute ride to get ice cream. Later that year we also took ice cream jaunts to the unapproved hour distance of the beach, but that is a different story, one with another ending.
With that history in mind you can understand why I asked “What’s this for?” about the unexpected gift of $20. My Dad said, “Just a little walking around money.”
Now my dad knows as well as I do, that aside from a weekly jaunt to the radio studio for my show and Sunday attendance at church, that I have become a hermit. I injured my knee in October and that injury and writing my “eMPowerment Series” books, there are 7 of them (finally available on www.powerstrategies.TV and www.WcWW.com), has left me glued to my desk the last many months. Pretty much my life revolves around my laptop and whatever can interrupt me from behind it.
I don’t why but I then did something I never do when someone interrupts me, and I turned completely around from my desk to talk with my father. I don’t know if it was the $20 bucks or the shock of it. Pleased he had my full attention, he told me he hadn’t been feeling well, pain on his side and then a welt on his leg, and I suddenly saw him for his age and his place in his life. He was no longer the dad of my 16th year, vibrant and edgy, but a more softened version with worries. He talked for a while, patted my on the shoulder (something he rarely does, the British are not renowned for their displays of affection) and said he was off!
Rather mystified at the encounter, I thanked him for the $20 bucks and turned back to my computer before he was gone. After he left, I didn’t get any work done. I sat with my hand on my chin and thought about life. How rapidly life moves. How my father had aged. How the years had passed since I had worried about interrupting him to ask for the hallowed funds and keys. 20 some odd years later , why had he just handed me $20 bucks?
Lost in thought, a short time later, I sensed my husband come up behind me. He was hesitant I think because without a call going or the keys tapping, he wondered if I was truly interruptible. He had never seen me just sitting at my desk before. I had a lot to do that day but I don’t think I had moved at all since my Dad had come in.
My husband cleared his throat, and said from behind me that he was going to pick up my daughter in town and he would be back. My husband, who has his desk on the other side of the house, is unlike me and will jump at any excuse to leave it. He has become the errand runner, the kid-picker upper, the driver, by his anxious-to-get-away-from-the-desk own choice. It works well for us!
Chad used to not getting an answer if I am busy, yet not wanting to interrupt me, yet perhaps worried about my stillness, jiggled his keys and then asked from behind me if I needed anything.
I suddenly turned from my desk, stood up and said, “I am going with you!” which shocked him! Then I added the ice water to his shock and said, “Let’s go get ice cream!! My dad just gave me $20 bucks!”
