June marks the beginning of "birthday month" for me. For whatever reason, just about every friend of mine is a Gemini, and has a birthday this month. My own mother is a Gemini and her birthday is today. She is 77.
Saturday we drove to KB's new home for her daughter's second birthday party. KB, her daughter, and my other best friend Ebet all share the same birthday. I am surrounded by these strong 'I can fix it' Gemini women. Steph is also a Gemini...oi. Being the only Cancer in this mix is a daunting experience...thank God I was born on the 4th of July. At least I have fireworks to help me.
I realize I haven't yet begun to tell all my KB stories or the stories of my mother. My mom is also a redhead. It's not that I don't think of them everyday...hell I talk to them almost every day...there are just so many hilariously wonderful stories to tell about these two Geminis. Where do I begin?
My mother attended Mount Saint Mary's College in LA back in the early 1950's. Mount Saint Mary's is an all female Catholic college. I find it humorous that my mother, the redhead was sent to an all girls college to get her Bachelors degree. Back in the 1950's many of the Hollywood celebrities sent their daughters to this college. They lived on campus and followed strict conduct rules set down by the nuns.
My mother graduated with a Bachelors degree in Nursing, with a real love for cell biology. She was in love with a local LA boy from a wealthy family, and they became engaed at the end of her final semester. That summer, my mother returned home to her small Northern California hometown to plan her wedding. My irish grandmother and italian grandfather were thrilled. My grandfather was thrilled because he wouldn't have to feed her or worry about her anymore. My grandmother was thrilled because her fiance was from a well thought of southern California family. And the engagement ring was VERY lovely.
Back home, my mother's best friend's husband, Eddie played in a jazz band. He had once been a member of the Dorsey orchestra. They invited my mother to go out and hear the band. My mother and her best girlfriend went to a club in a nearby city to hear Eddie play. There, this tall, large redheaded man kept trying to get my mother to dance. She kept telling him that she was engaged and was only there to hear Eddie play. Besides, she knew who this man was from her home town...he had a reputation...but lord he was handsome. She would not dance with him, so he asked her to go steady. Again, she said no. My mother is still really good at saying no...
While home for the summer, my mother took a job in the local hospital to pay for the wedding gown she had in mind. But each night when she would leave the hospital, this tall redheaded man, fresh out of the Army would show up to offer her a ride home. She kept telling him that she was engaged, but he did not falter. He just kept trying, even offering to take her to church. Eventually his efforts paid off, and my mother cancelled her engagement to the southern california man, and married my dad. Yes, my dad was that very tall, very large handsome redhead who refused to take no for an answer.
My irish grandmother cried so hard that she missed the wedding. My parents packed their car with their belongings and drove out of that small town never to return. My mother was crazy in love with my father. She never regretted mailing back the other engagement ring. My dad did everything for my mom, grateful for the life that she created for us at home. It was wonderful to grow up with these two as parents, and I adored my dad. I could always understand why she sent that ring back.
My grandparents missed her so much that they moved from the small town to Santa Rosa to be near my mom. Her youngest brother lived with us for a while when he attended the Junior college. In the end, they loved my dad too. This is what Gemini women are like. They forge ahead fearless, fighting for the life they want. They always get the life they want. All of them keep reminding me to stay on my path, and the life I seek will appear for me too. Could it hurry up please?
I met KB while working at North American Mortgage. I will never forget the day that she walked into our little department hidden away in an old fileroom. We were an automation project, still trying to prove our value to the company. KB was hired to develop a national training program and get all the loan officers to buy into automation. She looked like a irish girl fresh out of prep school with her east coast way of dressing. I liked her instantly.
I was just in the beginning weeks of my legal seperation when KB was hired. One day, she asked me to go for a walk around the walking path at NAMC corp. Thankfully, she (a basketball player) did not ask me to play basketball. As we walked, she began asking me about how I came to the decision to leave my marriage. I talked openly about the years, trying to make it work, and the disappointments. KB confides in me that she is thinking of leaving her long term relationship, which really could have been classified as a common law marriage. We bonded as friends on that day. Little did we know how our friendship would change both our lives.
If one were to ask me what my favorite KB story is, I suppose I would pick from ones where she is out of sorts or off her game. You see, KB always was well -organized and managed everything to perfection. My silly, hilarious crazy way of doing things drove her nuts. Although, she loved hanging out with me. Two traveling stories come to mind, but my favorite is the times we spent traveling to Chicago to train loan officers for the Royal Bank of Canada. Oh yes, and the times the two handsome older project managers would spoil us by taking us out to dinner.
Corp America often makes mistakes when it comes to making travel arrangements. NAMC was very careful about this and allowed us to make our own travel plans, however, RBC was not this way and in the beginning made our travel arrangemts for us. On this particular Chicago trip I was teamed up with a male trainer no one liked. I can make the best of these situations because I just look at it as business. Upon reflection, I should have had my radar up, because this male trainer was doing everything in his power to say constantly by my side.
Joy (my "Mr Big") was a big help to me back then, and he often checked on me wherever I was traveling. The first day at the location I bitched to him that this trainer was like my shadow and it was making me uncomfortable. Joy's joke was first "DO you blame him???" and then went on to say that he didn't like the sound of it. For example, it was a beautiful day in Libertyville. At the end of our training day I wanted to walk from the branch to a store up the street and check in on a nail salon and see about a pedicure. We were only two blocks from the hotel. This male trainer freaked, became aggitated, and started going on and on about how he needed to drive me. "Something could happen to you!" Yeh - I could be stuck in a car with HIM.....
Helloooooo...I have traveled to many places alone. Even spent half the night alone in the Houston Airport. I could handle a short walk down a busy street. I insisted on walking and told him he was on his own for the night. He tried to grab my arm and tell me that we were leaving together. The branch operations manager asked if everything was ok. This male trainer grumbled a "fine" and stormed out of the office. Thrilled, I walked down to the store, grabbed some salad makings, California wine (that cost twice as much as home), water, and fruit. As I was leaving the store and walking to the nail salon, I noticed this car was following me from a distance. Thinking I was being paranoid, I shrugged it off and went into the salon.
As luck would have it, they took me right away to the pedicure queen chair. While I was sitting high above this perch I was able to see the street. I clicked with the ladies in the salon and they opened the bottle of wine and we drank wine and painted my toes. Every now and then I would notice this same car driving through the parking lot and out again. Still, I thought nothing of it. I was probably at the salon an hour. Once my toes were dry, we re-corked the bottle and I walked out to continue the short block to the hotel.
This same car passes me a thrid time and I realize it is the male trainers rental car pulling into the hotel ahead of me. It dawns on me that the car is like the one I kept seeing the whole time since leaving the branch. I realize he has been following me. I recognise this type of behavior from my x husband, and it is makes me mad. I decide to go in a side door, avoiding the lobby and took the stairs to my room. I am there probably 15 minutes when there is a kcock (I mean KNOCK - Joy would call that slip quite Freaudian) on my door. I am sitting back on my bed eating a salad, watching the night time version of Oprah.
When I ask who it is, its the male trainer. I ask him what he wants and he tells me that it is urgent that we talk. I open the door, but have left the chain safety latch on, so the door would only open a few inches. He has been drinking and is visably upset. He begins to tell me how attracted he is to me and to just let him in to the room to explain (Yeh R I G H T ). I tell him I am tired, having computer issues and am really just going to call it a day and go to sleep.
He puts his shoulder to the door and pushes it open as if it is a paper latch, pulling the lock off the left side of the wall. This pushes be back and I step around behind him as his energy put him to the center of the room. This pisses me off, and I step by him into the hallway. We are on the 6th floor, at the end of a long quiet hallway. I tell him to leave or I am finding security. He wanders over to my computer, then goes and lays down on my bed. He begins some drunken tirade about how much he wants me and what a thrill it is traveling with me and to just come sit on the bed. (ICK ICK) This is when I became furious. I can be most unpleasant when furious.
I ended up telling him that he was the ugliest grossest most unattractive slug that I everhad the displeasure of traveling with. He even smelled bad. It was either yell this or scream fire. With that he leaps up (I think oh crap), I step aside ready to run to the stairs and he furiously storms out of my room in the other direction to the elevator. As I run back in to shut the door, he begins yelling obscinities. I dead bolt the door, start to cry...and call...KB.
To say that KB freaked out would be an understatement - she is over the top furious, telling me to call the project manager right then and there, and if I didn't - she would. So I called the project manager, He is wonderful. He asks me if I want to fly home, or would he like for him to send KB. I said "Send KB". With that the male trainer is sent on another assignment and KB is grabbing the first plane to Chicago. I never had to see the guy again. Once his out of the area asignment was over they let him go from the project.
So in flies KB to save the day. Joy was Mr Wonderful during this time too, but this part of the story is about KB and not "Mr Big". She arrives and catches a cab to my hotel and sets up in the other side of my suite. Everything is always better when KB arrives. She is in business -lets-kick-some-ass mode. The project manager had called the hotel. My door was fixed, and they left warm cookies on the table.
KB was taking over. This is a good thing and requires some shopping time. She rolls into the branch with me on the first day the male regional manager returns. He hates the automation project, automation, computers, corporate, life, seafood, the color purple, rising interest rates, I could go on but one gets the idea. He summons us to his office only to see two very tall irish women standing in front of his desk. Suddenly to have me and KB in his branch from time to time makes the whole automation four letter word look wonderful...hell he may even try seafood. We are 'in'.
If only all corporate games could be solved by sending in two very tall irish women, one a blonde, one a redhead - I'd be a multimillionere. Thus, this marks the beginning of several trips to Chicago and some of my favorite travel stories. Although, KB really does want me to eventually tell our travel story of the trip to Troy Michigan (north of Detroit) when we worked at NAMC. It involves me "looking for my sign"...I can still hear her snort a laugh every time I say that. Maybe eventually....
But next I will tell the Chicago story of my painful shoes, her car accident, loosing her drivers license, pokemon bandaids, embarassing her in a airport bar because I wanted to sit down, and meeting an x ball player from Houston named Brian...who told us about snakes and crocs...
Until next time...
C
PS. My imaginary lover likes both my mother and KB...
