The Thompson Trials and Travels

Christmas is bittersweet for me. I remember the excitement of waking at 5 a.m. and running in to see what "Santa" dropped off at our house. "Santa" always gave my older brother great gifts - like magic sets, or microscopes, or telescopes. For me..."Santa" must've thought I was my sisters twin because he always gave us the same thing - dolls, stuffed animals, Barbies, Easy-Bake ovens. I wasn't in to the domestic thing...at all (I still don't feel that itch). So it was around the age of 7when I realized parents have different ambitions for their children. The "boys" can be Doctors or Lawyers or Scientists - but the girls...give them a bubble-pop vacuum cleaner and they're set. My parents (or Santa) was badly mistaken. I often wonder how my life would have changed if I had been given a microscope versus an ugly doll whose mouth moved if you pulled the plastic ring at the back of her neck. I mean, HELLO, I'm smarter than that! Dol...

Zeke spent 4 days with us...he was to have spent a week, or more, but things happen when there is custody sharing between parents. To be honest - I was just glad to have the four days as it had been almost two months since I had seen him. Seven year olds see things much differently than 54 year olds (or 44 year olds or 34 year olds or 24 year olds for that matter). 1. Seven year olds do not care what they look like when they go shopping. They have no measurement as to what "looks good on them," "nor how they're presented to the world." They simply do not care if their clothes match, if their hair is brushed, nor what other's think of them. In fact, they don't even see "others." 200 people in the store and their only focus is finding the psp game aisle and the lego station. Lesson learned. 2. Seven year olds aren't impulsive buyers. If they do not want something they simply say, "I don't want that." I was amazed - I was from ...

Today has to be one of the saddest days of my life. I just watched Elton John perform on Oprah. Look, I know he’s getting old…and I don’t expect him to go into seclusion like Garbo…but please…don’t try to sing when you can’t sing any longer. Let me live with my memories! “Your Song,” “Tiny Dancer,” “Bennie and the Jets,” “Crocodile Rock,” those are songs that conjure up flashbacks of beer bombs on the mountain…white Bonnie Bell pineapple scented lipstick…pale lilac and eggshell blue nail polish…wedge leather sandals…and your music blaring from the 8 track tape deck firmly installed (compliments of my brother) in the console of my ’73 Firebird! Don’t sing and take those memories away from me!!! You see, when you hear a certain song… your youth comes rushing back. Every time I hear the BeeGee’s “To Love Somebody,” I’m transformed back to the homecoming dance my sophomore year…with Jeff…whose Brut cologne was so strong that my eyes stung and teared up. (Fortunately, he thought I was just ...

Sometimes it's a good year...sometimes it's a bad year...this year it was more like WTF???? I don't think this little town (a little town that supplied 80% of the carpet to the entire world btw) had ever seen a recession like we experienced in late 2008/2009. Many of my friends lost their jobs...many lost their own companies...many lost their homes. You could literally drive the streets and see the "for sale" signs, or worse the "foreclosure" signs, everywhere. In a town with a population of just over 76,000 people - our local newspaper had over 180 home forclosures listed in one week. I drove by these "for sale" and "foreclosure" signs every day on my way to work. There were eight on Tibbs Road (the road I took daily) alone. I wasn't really concerned about me personally, I had worked for the same company for 20+ years...had received a good performance review and a nice raise in March, but something in my 'gut' told me......