What do I want for my birthday?

September is right around the corner and that means one of the hardest questions of the year will be asked of me and I will not answer well, because well is me.
My birthday is this month and since I am not a jewelry person or a music person or movie person I don't collect anything I never know what I want for gift. Not for any holiday throughout the year.  There are things I would like but none are within my means that I would want someone else to pick. I love books but I love going to the book store and choosing. Not someone standing over me tapping their toe waiting for me to make the perfect selection in 15 minutes. It doesn't work that way.

So if money was no option what would I want. A sail boat about 25 ft long goes for well I am surprised anywhere from maybe $3,000 to $15,000 or more of course.  Big enough to take overnight trips but not to big that I would need help sailing. But then you need a place to store it and a trailer and a vehicle that can tow it or a slip and that is expensive. See how that could get very expensive. Another wish of mine would be for an old Mustang something between 65-67 maybe a fast back. Or I even saw a company out of Lakeland that makes new Mustangs that look old. Only $125,000. So you see my taste is not cheap.

Today while we were at the movies seeing Mission Impossible Rogue Nation, I thought I wonder what Tom Cruise got paid for this movie? What would I do with that kind of money. Hmm. I looked it up in the car. Tom made $25,000,000 for the movie. That is crazy money. Well crazy for me. So I thought if I had $25,000,000 what would I do with it. I mean maybe Tom would realize that I have been a good fan and I have seen quite a few movies(just counted 18 of 38 listed) and my share must add up to something. Well I just did the math and drum roll...$288 well I guess that is not that much that I have spent. So I won't be surprised that Tom isn't going to give me $25,000,000 either.

But since I can have anything let us just say he did. Here is how I would spend it. This is a blog not a legal binding document. If your name is mentioned I do not have said money and probably never will but in my dream land here is what I would do with it.

Family first. My mother would like to live another 20 years which with her health may or may not be a reasonable expectation but in this world it is. So let us just give her $500,000 to keep her comfortable in the house she has which she wouldn't trade for the world. I would give my brother and sisters and father the same. So that is $2,500,000 more. Brian is mad because I have given money away before I have done anything for us. So Brian can have a new car and motorcycle $65,000. Brian would like a pool but our yard does not really fit a pool so I have always wanted to buy the house next to mine and tear it down and put a pool and build an addition on to our house. with a reading room that I could write in and be inspired by wonderful books around me some beautiful rich wood cabinets a nice kitchen, patio and a few spare bedrooms to have room for sleepovers with my nieces and nephew before they are grown. $350,000. Man it goes fast with good taste.

Speaking of my nieces and nephews I would set them up with some money here we go another $2,500,000.
So we have taken care of the family and I am already seeing my bank account dropping quick but the money is really only the means to the end which is taking care of everyone. So far I am almost $6,000,000 in. Brian's family we would give the same amount which would be $3,000,000. We have a couple friends that I would give probably a total $500,000 and we are good. I have as well a few favorite charities that I would give to but nothing crazy because I would rather help a lot a little that give it all to one. And I need to live off of the rest you know. I would want Brian and I to be able to travel and live a comfortable life so lets say we would have to live for the next 50 years off of $5,000,000. So now I am up to almost 15 of my $25,000,000. I now see why Tom has to keep making movies. I don't own a jet or a chateau or a vineyard. I would like to visit Rome and Monaco but don't need a house there. I would like to go on cruises in the Caribbean and in Tahiti but don't need a yacht. I would like new things but nothing outrageous. I would want to well obviously have to keep my head about me that money since it is going fast.

So what is left a good life with my family to be able to share the bounty that I have been given. Be it $25,000,000 or more likely the estimated 1.2 million Brian and I will earn over the next 20 years of our lives and then retire and hope that our earnings will last us the rest of our happy lives together.

See what I see when I read this whole thing. There are only 3 things that I listed that I want. Everything else would be to share and enjoy with others. I want to be happy and I would love to have a boat and teach the kids to sail and a really cool car to teach them to drive in but if I can't have a cool car I will teach them in my Sebring and I will rent a boat for an afternoon so I can teach them to sail. If I can't go on a cruise with them all maybe we can go to dinner at a nice restaurant and if we can't go to Rome, Italy maybe Rome, Georgia or Paris, Texas. So I do know that after the lemon cake I shared last night with my friend Tracy and her daughter and grandson I do know what kind of cake I would like and we can afford that.

 I just read what I have written so far to Brian and it has brought tears to my eyes but you know he rattled off that I forgot about his man cave that would be somewhere near my library with a big screen tv with recliner seats theater quality sound and arcade games and whatever other cool gadgets he can dream up. See the I have no problem finding a gift for him. So good luck babe with my birthday gift. Good thing in my mind it is still better to give than receive.

City Hall for a Day

So as with everything in life it is ever changing. Tonight's post is difficult to write. Not because I do not have something to say but because I have to be very careful. I always read past posts before I start one. Sometimes it sets a mood or the mood is already there and I just want to put myself in the right place.

Well tonight I went to my other blog that I write, Day One. I read my first and last post. First was my poem For the Love of Lilly, posted three years ago this month. The second was called Soup of the Day. Which is funny to me because it was not about soup or grilled cheese and looking back no one that reads it now would know the exact subject I wrote about mainly because the world moves on so fast now. What made half the country furious a few months ago is old news now. So just like the rest of the world my life has gone on. 

Tonight's entry ties to both. I can not say exactly how because I do not want to commit to a subject because what makes us furious today will be gone tomorrow. And I do not need a written reminder of what it was that was making my world upside down. 

I have not written since right after my High School Reunion and there is only one reason. I have been busy. I have applied for a Lead position at work. Not sure how that will go but I do think I can do the job. Other stuff going on that is making me busy but again not really ready to say the words out loud. It is funny when I started writing I explained this is a totally selfish endeavour. It still is but with more readers comes more responsibility to others. Not that I care if one person or 12 people read my silly blog it is still to get what is in my head out and help me get a good nights sleep without offending or hurting anyone else.

Sleep that is when you close your eyes and put your head on the pillow? Right? Eight hours later you wake refreshed? I think I remember but not really sure. 

So today I saw my nephew get an award from the City for his Leadership qualities he has shown at camp this summer. Each camp got to choose kids from each age group that showed different qualities to the other campers: teamwork, leadership, kindness, compassion, integrity to name a few. Each camp sent their kids to City Hall and they got to meet the mayor. The mayor had them sit in the seats of the commissioners and city attorney and city manager and of course one kid got to be the mayor for a few minutes. Well at least sit in the chair and use the gavel to call the meeting to order and to call on their fellow campers to read off their quality and how it applied to them. I found one thing very interesting. Kindness always went to the youngest, most adorable kid in camp. Well I am not sure about the entire camp but of the kids selected to come they were the sweetest thing going. The little boy that could not say his name out loud that the Center manager came behind and said his name and his quality and why. No one needed to know why the kid was precious. That and the fact that the teamwork camper seemed to be the one to be mayor and the leadership kid was a little more outspoken than the others. 

For each group of campers the mayor would pick a quality and speak about it based on what the child had said. He elaborated on teamwork and leadership and how sometimes to be in charge he does not do what some people think is right but he does what he feels is best for the whole city based on the information he is provided by his team of employees and council members. 

So when you get the team together and they don't agree they start to argue. And even as mayor he may not think the answer is the right answer but if you only have so many choices he would have to pick the choice that is best for today with the information he has been given. So just like in life all the choices are not simple I mean there are pluses and minuses to both the red and the blue pill (for you Matrix fans).Take the red pill and go back to life as it was or see what is behind door number 2 (Oh no that is a different show all together). Ok so you take the blue pill and who knows what will happen. Well really either way there is no way to know for sure what is going to happen. Life is not a movie or a game show. There is no door number 2. There is no do over. Just keep moving forward with the information in front of you and try to choose wisely. I have played the mayor in life. Many times. Some think the best way to solve a problem is with a hammer or a big stick. Others think a voice of reason should be heard by all. Some are not going to stick around to see what is going to be done. But to make sure that they are heard they will go to the meeting speak their piece and bail. Have I lost you or are you catching on. See that is the question for me as well. 

The options I speak of are not for me. I am the farmer with the field that needs to be plowed and that is the only way to feed my family. And if it is only going to stop raining in the middle of the night I just have to turn the truck lights on and plow my field in the dark. So here I sit just after midnight trying to decide if I plow on left to right or right to left. I have seen both have similar results but some swear by one method and not the other. Thought we were talking about City Hall now I am talking about Farming. Well I watched a farming movie tonight. You know what a key ingredient to farming and City Hall? A lot of BS. Look I am so tired I am making jokes. 

We are not talking about Red Pills or Blue Pills or Farming. We are not talking about City Hall. Since I can not say what we are talking about I will say that a lot of bright people can come together in the same room and discuss the same subject and when they all leave no decision had been made. I think this is why the President is but one man or may I say one day one woman. He or she has a council of very smart people that they can consult with but in the end the decision to sign the bill or veto is his or hers. Well unless some big pharmaceutical company has a hand in the pot or a farming conglomerate that wants to wipe out all the family farms and it is an election year. Well no one has offered me fame or fortune and I am not up for re-election but I am going to continue with the decision I have made after consulting my council. The choice is not easy I think that is what the rest of the counsil may not understand. The choices are not easy. They never are.But in the best interest of well, well I can not say but I will do as I always... What I feel is best.

Still making memories after all these years.

So it is 3 Am or 3'oclock in the morning and it looks like it is going to be another sleepless night... Two great songs that are what it is. 3 o'clock in the morning. Can't sleep. Thinking about what was and what has come of it. I know, Get to the point Jeanne. So I did go to my 30th High School Reunion. Anyone out there planning a reunion and really just want to talk and have a nice time take note. That does not take formal clothes and high priced rubber chicken. A few chicken wings and beers and a bunch of people that grew up in Clearwater looking over Clearwater Beach and remembering when... When we were young, or pretty or popular or not. When the beach was what it was and not what it is and how we were all glad that we grew up in the time that Crystal Palace and the skate shop were game rooms (arcades)  and were places that kids congregated. We remembered the Howard Johnson's restaurant and the Memorial Civic Center and how many of us worked for Eckerd. Part-time, Full time, or Lifers like me. But even that has changed.

Band kids that have not picked up an instrument since band but still treasure every moment of playing and marching and all the friends along the way. I would like to make a quick shout out to my friend Jerry. A friend from elementary school. I just caught a glimpse of his name tag and I was so happy to see him. I wanted to tell him yes, I still have your trumpet and if you want it back swing by the house. We laughed. He had just been telling the people he was with that he never knew what happened to his old trumpet. Well I have been saving it. Not feeling right to get rid of it. It was not mine. But not knowing whatever happened to him to give it back. Now it is clear. I can do with it as I please. I think I will pass it on to an aspiring musician that doesn't know the trumpet might inspire him. I really think that seeing Jerry turned things around for the night for me. Made me realize the memories I have are shared. Not exactly the same memories. I had the trumpet and knew it and he didn't know what happened to it.

Another guy from band Bill, I remembered that I annoyed him. I have been carrying that for 30 years guess what. He wasn't annoyed by me. I am officially letting it go. So in some ways therapeutic that I went.

Friday night I mostly spoke to people I know. Brian and Kim and her husband. Mary and Mike beach kids. There is always that person that remembers me that I thought how could the coolest guy in high school remember me and was glad to see me. Yes. He was. And if you think it was you and you talked to me maybe you were the coolest guy in school. Or maybe that is just me remembering high school the way I remember high school. Still feeling like for the most part the people I spoke to were people I still speak to and not sure I really needed to go Saturday. But I was hoarse when I got home and glad to tell my mom about the beach kids I saw and they all said to tell my brother hello.

But Saturday night was really it for me I thought what the heck Brian and I don't get out much. But like I said Jerry turned things around. I stuck my neck out and said hello to people that I was not sure that they would know who I was but they did. People spoke to me that I was not sure I remembered. My favorite set of twins Peter and David again another pair that go all the way back to elementary school. What surprises me the most is how many of us still live around here and I never see them or run into them at the grocery store.

I spoke to people from the neighborhood I lived in when I was little. Just a mile from where we live now. And we all reminisced about remember where this one lived or that one. And if you remember that one do you remember this one. Whatever happened to them? People that rode the school bus together or were in middle school together. Or toilet papered houses together or whatever we did. It was in good fun. Cleaned up plenty of toilet paper as well.

There were people I miss that were not there. People I asked about that no one seemed to know about. My dear friend Jane. Man I miss her. I have so many fun memories. I told someone about us making perogies or going to Mister Submarine and getting my still all time favorite sandwich a Roast beef with everything that we would split at all ours of the night. She was a Pepsi girl all the way back then. If you are reading this and know her tell her I say hi. And think of all our fun often.

I wish I could name everyone it was great to see. But if I do I will forget someone and I don't want to do that so I am going to say I am so glad I spoke to all of you. My voice was so hoarse on Sunday at work and Monday. But it will recover. And now you all know that we live between Caponga's and Dairy Kurl and if you want pizza or ice cream don't hesitate to stop by we will be glad to go.

Hope it doesn't take another 20 years before we get together again.